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The One Chicago shows love their crossovers but which ones are the best and worst?

One Chicago has always been a fantastic universe to enjoy. Chicago Fire, Chicago Pd and Chicago Med are genius at how they make it so natural to coexist. Characters from one show can pop into another without looking obtrusive and distracting. There's also the great relationships across the shows from the Halstead brothers to Mouch and Trudy's marriage.

Crossovers between the shows are thus commonplace with NBC often doing special events across all three series. Some are better than others, with the best linking the shows together with a good storyline and character work. The weaker ones don't really offer a reason they need to be linked together when one episode could have done it. 

For this list, these are full crossovers, not just characters from one show appearing in another. We're also only counting full One Chicago ones,...

As with every popular adaptation, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings will always come under scrutiny. Fans did this for the Peter Jackson trilogy, as well as The Hobbit prequels. The magnifying glass has only gotten bigger thanks to Prime Video.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is already two seasons deep. It is a very polarizing property in how it has been tweaking the lore and the timeline. With that in mind, here is a ranking of the 10 most controversial episodes that broke canon to tell a condensed story for TV.

The Rings of Power Gave Morgoth a New General Season 1, Episode 3, "Adar" Image via Prime Video

"Adar" revealed someone usurped Sauron's spot once Morgoth was destroyed. The orcs kidnapped Arondir (a new Elf created for the show) and was taken to meet Adar. The latter was a leader who wanted to create...

An upcoming Netflix thriller, Apex, is set to bring together new and old Marvel stars Charlize Theron and Eric Bana, along with Carry-On'sTaron Egerton. Apex is “described as Free Solo meets Silence of the Lambs.”

Eric Bana is the latest actor to be added to the Apex cast, as Deadline reports, although his role is not known. The film sees Theron playing a rock climber who finds herself in the terrifying situation of being hunted in the wilderness. Egerton plays the psychopath stalking Theron’s character. The Carry-On star was announced as an Apex cast member in November 2024. Reykjavík, Iceland-born filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur is set to direct the film while the screenplay was written by Jeremy Robbins, whose credits include The Purge television series.

While further details of Apex are in short supply, another piece of the puzzle has fallen into place with the addition of Eric Bana, who will...

Taron Egerton has joined Charlize Theron in Apex, a thriller that Baltasar Kormákur is directing for Netflix.

Details are being kept deep in the woods but the script centers on a rock climber and adrenaline junkie, played by Theron, who finds out that nature isn’t the only dangerous element out to get her when she sets out on an expedition in the wild.

Egerton will play a psychopath stalking his human prey (Aka, Theron).

Jeremy Robbins wrote the script, which Netflix picked up as spec project, before bringing on board Theron and Kormákur (Everest, Adrift).

Theron is producing the feature along with Dawn Olmstead, Beth Kono and Aj Dix via their recently-launched Secret Menu banner. Other producers include Ian Bryce; and Chernin Entertainment’s Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping and David Ready.

Egerton broke out on the big-screen with Matthew Vaughn’s comic book adaptation The Kingsman: The Secret Service...

Exclusive: Gal Gadot has been set to star in The Runner, a London-set action thriller that will be directed by Kevin Macdonald. Amazon MGM Studios has acquired worldwide rights to the film which was developed and will be produced by David Kosse under the veteran exec’s new venture, Rockwood Pictures.

Prolific award-winning filmmaker Macdonald is directing from a script by Mark Gibson.

Gadot plays a high-powered attorney who must race through London, following the cryptic commands of a mysterious Caller, as she fights against time to save her abducted son.

Wonder Woman star Gadot’s recent credits include Netflix’s Red Notice and Heart of Stone. She will next be seen starring as the Evil Queen in Disney’s live-action Snow White which is due for domestic release...

With other similar survival movies drawing from real-life events, there is some question if Cast Away is based on a true story. The movie follows the story of FedEx executive Chuck Noland (Hanks) as he's stranded on a deserted island in the middle of the South Pacific after a plane crash. Movies like 127 Hours and Adrift deal with the accounts of real people who faced impossible odds to survive, but Cast Away is more fiction than either of these movies. Nevertheless, there are many real-life experiences that influence the movie.

Isolated for four years, Noland struggles to survive and stay sane, with his only company being Wilson, a volleyball that was part of the plane's cargo, which has a painted face made by Noland's own bloody handprint. Written by William Broyles Jr. and directed by Robert Zemeckis, the Tom Hanks movie was a box office hit, making nearly $430 million...

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power's Season 1 finale featured an explosive reveal: Halbrand (Charlie Vickers), the mysterious drifter and companion of Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) turns out to be Sauron, Middle-earth's most dangerous villain. While some viewers were shocked at the reveal, more eagle-eyed viewers were not so easily misled. The producers foreshadowed that Halbrand wasn't who he claimed to be or rather, let everyone think he was throughout the entire season in moments that only be appreciated upon repeat viewings.

Though the reveal that Halbrand was really Sauron all along was a serious break with established The Lord of the Rings canon, the finale episode, "Alloyed," called into question Halbrand's behavior throughout the entire season. The producers were creative in hiding Halbrand's true identity until the very end, especially considering that The Stranger in the Harfoot storyline could have also been Sauron. But looking back at...

Forget about “The Magnificent Seven”: It’s time for The Magnificent Six, competing for the Nordic Council Film Prize this year.

The nominees – consisting of four fiction and two documentary feature films and each representing one of the Nordic countries – were announced by Nordisk Film & TV Fond at the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund.

Denmark is represented by “The Son and the Moon,” directed by Roja Pakari and Emilie Adelina Monies. Written by Pakari – documenting her own struggle with cancer – and Denniz Göl Bertelsen, it’s produced by Sara Stockmann for Sonntag Pictures.

“Twice Colonized” by Lin Alluna, hailing from Greenland, was written by Aaju Peter and Alluna. Pic is produced by Emile Hertling Péronard for Ánorâk Film, Red Marrow Media and EyeSteelFilm.

“I’m extremely happy about the nomination and the fact that Greenland is now, for only the second time, represented at the Nordic Council Film Prize.

Quick Links The Rings of Power Is Full of Tolkien Lore and New Ideas The New Rings of Power Characters Still Feel Apart of Tolkien's World Prime Video's Original Characters Have Elevated The Rings of Power's Story

J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is one of the greatest fictional literary works of all time. It has received praise and adoration for decades and the entire Tolkien Legendarium has a huge following and scholars dedicated to the works. Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings films are praised for their dedication to the source material, which has helped with their international renown. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is the latest adaptation of the beloved works and it took a few more liberties with the stories of Tolkien. Yet, the best parts of the series may be the ones that Tolkien didn't directly create at all.

At their best, political documentaries make sense of complex issues. But getting them seen has become more challenging than ever given Hollywood’s preference for celebrity or true-crime nonfiction offerings over anything grappling with thorny, complicated issues or figures.

This hasn’t stopped top documentary filmmakers from tackling such topics. Errol Morris’ “Separated,” a look at Trump administration immigration policies on the U.S. border, will debut at the Venice film festival. Docs about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, gun control and antisemitism are also in the works and could end up at fall festivals. There is also chatter about a doc focusing on Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

It’s not at all clear who might distribute these films, which follow in the footsteps of political documentaries like Michael Moore’s record-breaking “Fahrenheit 9/11” and Amazon Prime Video’s 2020 offering “All In: The Fight for Democracy,” directed by Liz Garbus and Lisa Cortés,...

Will “The Old Guard 2” ever hit Netflix? As the sequel’s future remains uncertain, star Charlize Theron puts a different thriller on her schedule with the streamer. Deadline reports that the actress is in final talks to star in “Apex,” a buzzy survivalist thriller, with Baltasar Kormákur negotiating a deal to direct. And Kormákur is a solid choice to helm this one: after “Everest,” “Beast,” and “Adrift,” he knows his way around the singular tension of this kind of movie.

Continue reading Charlize Theron Joins ‘Apex’ & Says ‘Old Guard 2’ Post-Productions Was “Shut Down” By Netflix At One Point at The Playlist.

Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur is a rare sort these days. Here is a director who has built a successful, decades-long career making solid, genre-heavy programmers while often returning to Iceland to put in solid work. There was a time that this kind of output was the lifeblood of the industry. His type nearly extinct now, Kormákur beats on, telling stories for adults.

His new film, Touch, fits right into the mold. Talk about a relic: a mid-budget romantic drama released in theaters! Written by Kormákur and Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson (based on Ólafur’s 2022 novel of the same name), it tells the story of Kristófer (Egill Olafsson), an older widow who shuts down his restaurant in Iceland and travels to Japan in an attempt to find Miko, the love of his life from half a century ago.

It’s the beginning of 2020 and Covid-19 is swiftly shutting the world down. We...

Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur made a handful of smaller films before bursting into mainstream Hollywood with the Mark Wahlberg action flick "Contraband" in 2012. He's stayed steadily busy ever since, cranking out the Denzel Washington/Mark Wahlberg actioner "2 Guns" in 2013, the ensemble mountain climbing thriller "Everest" in 2015, the Shailene Woodley/Sam Claflin survival movie "Adrift" in 2018, and the "Idris Elba fights a lion" movie "Beast" in 2022, plus directing a couple of television shows in between. As those credits indicate, Kormákur is primarily known to American audiences for his high-octane filmmaking style. His latest project, however, marks a significant change of pace.

"Touch," written by Kormákur and Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson (based on a novel by Ólafsson), tells the story of Kristófer, an elderly Icelander whose wife has passed away. Spurred on by some health issues of his own and sense that he's running out of time, Kristófer sets out to find a woman named Miko,...

The One Who Got Away is a romantic notion that’s been widely propagated by pop culture cinema. And for good reason, as heartfelt drama and compelling conflicts arise authentically from these confrontations with fate. Director-co-writer Baltasar Kormákur’s “Touch,” based on Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson’s novel of the same name, expands on this swoon-worthy idea, elegantly crafting an achingly poignant story centered on an elderly man searching for his true love amidst a time of uncertainty. This gentle, unfussy romance contains a heart-clutching finale that’s as classically restrained as it is emotionally resounding.

Kristofer (Egill Ólafsson) lives a lonely life on the chilly seaside of Iceland since the death of his wife years prior. His days consist of singing in a men’s choir, chatting on the phone with his overbearing daughter Sonja (Harpa Elísa Þórsdóttir), owning a restaurant in his sleepy village and returning to the sad,...

The Divergent series cast includes rising stars such as Shailene Woodley and Theo James, who gained fame from the movies. The Divergent series was canceled due to lack of success, leading the original cast to move on to other projects. Characters like Tris and Four faced themes of loyalty and sacrifice, evolving into formidable leaders in the faction-divided world.

The Divergent series main cast includes 12 prominent actors, many of whom rose to fame during the 2010s. Some of them may not have been big names when these movies came out in 2014-2016, but all of them are now bonafide stars on film and TV. The Divergent series refers to the trilogy of movies based on books by Veronica Roth, titled Divergent, Insurgent, and Allegiant. The three Divergent movies starred Shailene Woodley and Theo James in the lead roles, with a massive ensemble cast, including veterans, rising stars, and several award-winning actors.

Glasgow-based Momentum Films, led by producer Rakasree Basu (“Iqbal and the Jewel of India”), has officially launched at the Cannes Film Festival’s market.

The company is focusing on developing original stories by converging the Scottish and the South Asian cinematic landscapes across feature films, high end television and narrative documentaries.

Momentum has an under-production film “Adrift,” which was shot in Tamil Nadu, southern India, and is currently in post-production. The Tamil-language film explores the underlying complexity of the idea of identity through the story of a young man growing up in an orphanage in India when his quest for freedom become an endless pursuit. It marks the debut feature for director Ponselvam Karthi. The cast includes M.R. Netaji, Harishankar and Thamira.

“Adrift” is produced by Momentum Films as a minority co-production partner along with Yellow House Pictures and Raging Films, India and A.K. Studios, U.S.

Karthi said: “Through this film,...

Shailene Woodley, Ben Foster and Pablo Schreiber will join the previously announced Alan Ritchson in the action thriller “Motor City.”

Potsy Ponciroli will direct the picture. Production begins July 10 in New Jersey and AlUla, Saudi Arabia as part of Stampede Ventures’ 10-picture slate deal with Film AlUla.

Greg Silverman and Jon Berg will produce for Stampede Ventures, alongside Rohini Singh, Paramdeep Singh and Manmeet Singh of Astro Lion Pictures, and Cliff Roberts and Chad St. John, who also penned the script. Mike Tadross Jr. and Eric Hedayat will executive produce.

Black Bear represents international rights with WME Independent co-representing domestic rights with Stampede, and Sacker Entertainment Law overseeing production legal.

“Motor City” follows John Miller (Ritchson), a Detroit auto-worker whose life and girlfriend (Woodley) are taken away from him when he’s framed by a local gangster (Foster) and sent to prison. On his release, Miller unleashes a maelstrom of...

Baltasar Kormákur is back directing — but this time it’s not a survival drama, it’s a romance.

The “Adrift” and “Everest” filmmaker directs Focus Features’ “Touch,” based on the bestselling novel by Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson. The film tells a romantic and thrilling story that spans several decades and continents, with one widower trying to find his first love who disappeared 50 years ago.

Director Kormákur co-wrote the screenplay with novelist Ólafsson. The original Icelandic novel was published by Ecco/Harper Collins in the U.S. in August 2022. The film was shot in Iceland and Japan.

The ensemble cast is led by Egill Ólafsson, Kōki, Pálmi Kormákur, Masahiro Motoki, Yoko Narahashi, Meg Kubota, and Tatsuya Tagawa, with Charles Nishikawa, Sigurður Ingvarsson, Benedikt Erlingsson, Kieran Buckeridge, Ruth Sheen, María Ellingsen, and Masatoshi Nakamura also starring.

Writer/director Kormákur produces along with Agnes Johansen and Mike Goodridge. Kormákur most recently directed 2022’s “Beast...

To the surprise of just about everyone, production company Story Kitchen has announced a film adaptation of Black Salt Games 2023 indie horror title, Dredge. While Dredge was a critical hit and relative commercial success, it’s not the kind of game you’d expect to receive a film adaptation so soon after its release. Then again, it sometimes feels like every video game out there is currently being turned into a movie or TV show.

We know very little about the Dredge adaptation at the moment, but it’s being described as “The Sixth Sense on the water” and “a grounded atmospheric cosmic horror blend of Hp Lovecraft and Ernest Hemingway.” That certainly sounds promising, and Story Kitchen’s past and future projects show that they certainly have an eye for the best video games across a variety of genres.

Without getting into heavy spoilers, Dredge sees you play as...

Sam Claflin, known for his role in The Hunger Games, is set to star in a new television adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo, a story of revenge and betrayal. The upcoming eight-part miniseries will be directed by Bille August, and will incorporate contemporary elements to appeal to a new audience. Claflin's career has been on the rise since his breakout role in The Hunger Games, with notable projects including Love, Rosie and Me Before You, as well as his recent role in the hit series Daisy Jones & The Six.

After surprising the world with his leading role in Amazon Prime Video's hit series Daisy Jones & the Six, Sam Claflin lands his next big part. The Count of Monte Cristo is the upcoming television adaptation of the acclaimed novel by French author Alexandre Dumas, published in 1844. The story, one that has already been adapted on several occasions...

Screen is profiling every submission for best international feature at the 96th Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2024 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 96th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 10, 2024 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between December 1, 2022, and October 31, 2023. The deadline...

Exclusive: The Dtla Film Festival has set the full feature lineup for its 15th edition, taking place at Regal L.A. Live from November 1-5, announcing the Jack Huston starrer Hail Mary as its opening night film.

Also starring Angela Sarafyan, Natalia del Riego, and Benny Emmanuel, the film from Rosemary Rodriguez is described as a genre-bending retelling of the Mary and Joseph story following an undocumented, pregnant migrant’s journey to make it safely across the U.S. border.

Nicki Micheaux’s Summer of Violence will serve as Centerpiece film for the fest, being put on in accordance with SAG-AFTRA strike guidelines, with Deborah Attoinese’s Women in Fire to close it out. Additional feature highlights include the sci-fi rom-com Molli and Max in the Future starring Zosia Mamet, Aristotle Athari, and Okieriete Onaodowan; Maxim Pozdorovkin’s animated doc The Conspiracy featuring voice actors like Mayim Bialik, Liev Schreiber,...

Screen is profiling every submission for best international feature at the 96th Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2024 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 96th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 10, 2024 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between December 1, 2022, and October 31, 2023. The deadline...

Screen is profiling every submission for best international feature at the 96th Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2024 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 96th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 10, 2024 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between December 1, 2022, and October 31, 2023. The deadline...

Screen is profiling every submission for best international feature at the 96th Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2024 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 96th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 10, 2024 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between December 1, 2022, and October 31, 2023. The deadline...

Multimedia Music has closed a deal to acquire the music publishing rights from the film music library of Millennium Media, which includes titles such as “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” “London Has Fallen,” “Angel Has Fallen,” “Hitman Wife’s Bodyguard,” “Hellboy,” “The Outpost,” “Mechanic: Resurrection,” “Rambo: Last Blood,” “Blackbird,” “Acts of Vengeance” and “The Expendables 4.”

The deal follows Multimedia Music’s recent music partnership with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners, and its acquisition of STX Entertainment’s music library.

The Millennium Media library includes music from leading composers including Brian Tyler, Atli Orvarsson, Mark Isham, Trevor Morris, David Buckley and Benjamin Wallfisch.

Multimedia Music will co-publish the catalog with current co-owner and administrator Kobalt Music.

James Gibb, who founded Multimedia Music with colleague Phil Hope, said: “Millennium Media consistently produces high caliber, commercial films made for the big screen that have earned over $2 billion at the box office. We are thrilled to have secured this catalog,...

Neon is climbing into the passenger seat of Michael Mann’s Ferrari, a new film from the celebrated director starring Adam Driver and Penélope Cruz. Ferrari looks to premiere at the Venice Film Festival at the end of August, with Neon acquiring the rights in North America in a competitive situation. According to Deadline, Ferrari is racing into theaters on Christmas Day 2023. STX Entertainment, who helped get the film onto the pavement, is actively involved with all the Neon negotiations (which are still being determined as of this posting). STX set up and provided most of the financing to produce the movie. With Robert Simonds, Sam Brown, and Noah Fogelson executive producing, Ferrari will be distributed internationally through STX Entertainment and its partners.

“Michael Mann, one of the most innovative and influential filmmakers in American cinema, was moved by the power of this intensely dramatic story to persist for years...

From driving beats that push players forward to emotive cues that nudge them to feel, music is a critical aspect of Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical. Created by developer Summerfall Studios and publisher Humble Games, the game aims to push this element of game design one step further. An upcoming remix of Greek mythology, Stray Gods puts the music behind the wheel of the gameplay itself, asking players to make choices and explore branching possibilities within the structure of song. Screen Rant attended “Myth and Music: An Evening with Stray Gods,” a musical event showcasing some of the songs and talent for the upcoming title, and came away impressed.

The evening opened with a performance from Laura Bailey in the role of Grace, the protagonist of Stray Gods. A college dropout reckoning with a sudden tragedy, Grace is thrust headfirst into clashing forces of myth when she receives the power of a Muse.

Set in the rock 'n' roll-heavy 1970s, Daisy Jones & The Six documents the rise and fall of a fictional rock band, with the characters played by a star-studded cast. The Prime original is based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Taylor Jenkins Reid, who was inspired by the career of Fleetwood Mac while writing it. The series focuses on the origins of the titular band as they carve a niche in the Los Angeles music scene following up to the events that led to their eventual breakup. It's certainly a heartbreaking and compelling story.

Apart from the songs by its fictional band, what makes Daisy Jones & The Six more interesting is the documentary format used by showrunners Scott Neustadter and Michael H Weber (both of whom co-wrote screenplays like 500 Days of Summer). The story is narrated through flashbacks by the band members as they reunited for a...

Survival horror Fall (which is now on Netflix UK) sees two extreme sports enthusiasts climb up a 2000 foot tower in the middle of the desert and get stuck at the top. It’s high-concept in every sense as the two women teeter on a tiny ledge impossibly high up while the audience feel (pleasantly?) sick and anxious the whole time.

Fall is effective and efficient. The girls are likeable, capable and make good choices (other than climbing up a 2000 foot tower in the first place…). There’s real peril, enough back story to round the characters out, but ultimately it’s girls vs tower, with some pesky buzzards thrown in for good measure. This kind of survival horror – and by that in this instance we mean a film where characters are pitted against nature or a circumstance, rather than a person, or a supernatural entity – works viscerally when it’s done well.

As Sam Claflin explains in an interview with Men’s Health, auditioning for Daisy Jones & the Six was a new experience. It was the first time he’d ever been in a recording studio, and even that “make love to the microphone” move was something he had to learn. “I was so nervous,” he says, “[music supervisor Frankie Pine] slipped me a few shots of moonshine.” Winning critical acclaim for his performance in the Amazon series, this leap of faith indeed paid off. It wasn’t the first time the actor, perhaps most familiar as a heartthrob in The Hunger Games and romantic films like Me Before You and Adrift had stepped far outside himself for a role. The farthest he’d ever gone was for the 2018 film The Nightingale, director Jennifer Kent’s unflinching follow-up to modern horror classic The Babadook. As the film’s villain, Hawkins, a lieutenant in...

After pitting a knife-wielding Jennifer Lopez and a submachine gun-armed Jennifer Coolidge against a pack of wedding-crashing pirates in the rom-com/action mashup "Shotgun Wedding" (you can read our review of the film here), Prime Video is slowing things down a little in February. That month will see the release of the second and final season of the streamer's fantasy neo-noir series "Carnival Row," which is dropping nearly three and a half years after the first season launched in August 2019, in case you find yourself wondering (much like /Film's Valerie Ettenhofer), "Wait, so I didn't imagine the show where Orlando Bloom solves crimes and hooks up with pixie Cara Delevingne?" No, no you did not, but hey, at least now it has a proper ending!

In the absence of too many major new releases beyond that, Prime Video and Freevee viewers might want to spend February catching one of the...

Shows like Lost have such an overarching story across its six seasons that it feels like every episode is important in some shape or form. While that's relatively true since even forgettable installments include bits of character development or backstory, there are a handful of episodes that could be considered filler.

These episodes don't further the overall story of the series by much so some fans say they can be skipped. However, many of these filler stories are better than they're given credit for and feature aspects that make them worth watching for first time viewers and those rewatching them.

The Moth

For the most part, it's hard to consider any season 1 episode as filler since audiences are still so new to this world that everything feels interesting to them. That said, "The Moth" is something of a standalone episode as it centers on Charlie being trapped in a cave...

Major spoilers ahead for "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" season 1.

"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" has wrapped up season 1 and is currently shooting season 2. The Prime Video series is based on author J.R.R. Tolkien's supplemental lore for Middle-earth, and is set thousands of years before the Peter Jackson film trilogies. This is the story of how the rings of power were formed, the secret return of Sauron after his mentor Morgoth's defeat, and the destruction of the island nation of Númenor. It's a sweeping epic that has us traveling all over Middle-earth and beyond and almost to the western lands where the elves go to rest. And in the final episodes of season 1, it also shows us the rise of Mordor. 

Emmy-nominated writer and executive producer Gennifer Hutchinson, who wrote the finale with showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, as well as the episode "Adrift,...

The great fantasy show face-off of 2022 ended weeks ago, with Prime Video's "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" and HBO's "House of the Dragon" each concluding their first season in October. However, we're still talking about both shows and how their streaming numbers matched up, among other things. Ratings don't mean as much, of course, when you're a franchise prequel with a built-in fanbase and a second season that has already been written and already began filming even before the first season concluded.

"The Rings of Power" was actually renewed as far back as 2019, and Prime Video invested almost half a billion dollars in the first season alone, so its immediate future was never in doubt. This put the show's writers in the unique position of not having to wonder whether they would be able to continue the story beyond the first season.

One of those writers was Gennifer Hutchinson,...

After two years of waiting, Genshin Impact players will finally be able to play as Scaramouche with the arrival of the upcoming Version 3.3 update. HoYoverse's action RPG has an ever-growing roster of playable heroes, which players can expand through paid pulls of a gacha gambling mechanic. The Genshin Impact Unreconciled Stars event introduced Scaramouche to the story back in 2020, and soon the beloved antagonist will be transformed into a playable protagonist.

◆ The Wanderer ◆ Eons Adrift ◆ Tribulations Uncounted, Trials Unknowable ◆ Anemo ◆ Peregrinus#GenshinImpact #Wanderer pic.twitter.com/XRhMLh8u58 — Genshin Impact (@GenshinImpact) October 31, 2022

As announced by Genshin Impact via Twitter, Scaramouche will soon be added to the title's ever-growing lineup of playable adventurers. Now known as The Wanderer, or Eons Adrift, Scaramouche will surprisingly wield the windy Anemo element rather than the shocking Electro element he used during his boss fight. The Fatui Harbinger has also received an updated design to match his new role,...

The filmmaker was in conversation with Japanese director Akio Fujimoto.

Vietnamese director Bui Thac Chuyen waited five years for his lead actress to be ready to star in his latest feature Glorious Ashes, he told Japanese filmmaker Akio Fujimoto at Tokyo International Film Festival today (October 25).

The two were in conversation as part of TIFF’s Lounge talks the day after the world premiere of Bui Thac’s rural drama, which plays in the festival’s Competition section – the first time a Vietnamese film has been selected for the competitive strand.

“When you’re casting, you sometimes have those moments...

Click here to read the full article.

Three women living in a small village on the Mekong Delta struggle to contend with the men they’re bound up with in Glorious Ashes, a thoughtful if somewhat heavy-handed ensemble piece from Vietnamese writer-director Bui Thac Chuyen (Adrift).

Premiering in competition at Tokyo, the film provides an intriguing look at a part of the world where the old ways, whether in farming, fishing or wives being completely subjected to their husbands’ every last whim, still dominate daily life. But the two-hour drama never quite rises above its earnest and weighty message, which makes it more of a thoughtful pedagogical item than a movie with serious market potential.

This is not to say that Glorious Ashes isn’t, at least in its conception, a probing and rather dark depiction of the quotidian struggles faced by its trio of heroines, all of whom have...

(Warning: Major spoilers ahead for the "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" season 1 finale.)

"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" season 1 has ended, and much has been revealed. After weeks of speculation, we know the identity of Sauron. We have a pretty good idea of who the Stranger (Daniel Weyman) is from some contextual clues and lines. We've seen Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) tested, and we've lost a harfoot. So much happened in the final hour of the season, including the forging of three rings of power for the elves. Instead of a giant battle at the end, we were taken back to characters and relationships.

I got a chance to chat with Gennifer Hutchison, who wrote this episode alongside showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay. Hutchison talked about balancing the information for fans with knowledge of J.R.R. Tolkien's work and those who are new to the lore,...

After scaring up 56 million in theaters worldwide, the Idris Elba-starring creature feature Beast is next headed to the Peacock streaming service, we’ve learned this morning.

Beast, which you can currently rent or buy on VOD, claws into Peacock on October 7!

Peacock will be the Exclusive streaming home for the 2022 film.

Beast is the latest addition to Peacock’s growing library of iconic films, including Jurassic World Dominion, Minions: The Rise of Gru, Vengeance, Brian and Charles, The Black Phone, The Bad Guys, Downton Abbey: A New Era, and The Northman.

In Beast, “A recently widowed man (Idris Elba) and his two teenage daughters travel to a game reserve in South Africa. However, their journey of healing soon turns into a fight for survival when a bloodthirsty lion starts to stalk them.”

Baltasar Kormákur (Everest, Adrift) directed Beast for Universal Pictures. Based on an idea by Jaime Primak-Sullivan, Ryan Engle (Rampage) wrote the script.

So far, most of the episode titles for "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" have been pretty self-explanatory. In "Adrift," Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) is adrift at sea. In "The Great Wave," Míriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) dreamt of a great wave. Sure, most of the show's titles also have more metaphorical double meanings, but on the surface, they've been quite obvious. The meaning behind the title of the latest and darkest episode of the show, "Udûn," is a little bit less transparent — and has a more loaded history — than most.

Though it has a long history in J.R.R. Tolkien's texts, the word Udûn isn't mentioned on screen until nearly the end of this week's hour. When it is, it's by a lineup of captured orcs, who begin chanting the word when the eruption of Mount Doom begins. Adar (Joseph Mawle), the mysterious villain who's also currently a prisoner of Galadriel and Míriel,...

Released in theaters just last month, the Idris Elba-starring action/horror movie Beast is now available at home. The Premium VOD offering can be rented for 19.99, purchased for 24.99.

Watch Beast via Amazon or your favorite VOD platform tonight!

To date, Beast has clawed its way to 48 million worldwide, with 27 million of that number scared up here in the United States. The film will next be coming to Peacock at a later date.

In Beast, “A recently widowed man (Idris Elba) and his two teenage daughters travel to a game reserve in South Africa. However, their journey of healing soon turns into a fight for survival when a bloodthirsty lion starts to stalk them.”

Baltasar Kormákur (Everest, Adrift) directed Beast for Universal Pictures. Based on an idea by Jaime Primak-Sullivan, Ryan Engle (Rampage) wrote the script.

Meagan Navarro wrote in her 3-star review for Bloody Disgusting (read it here), “Beast...

In this second episode of The Rings of Power, Elrond tries to mend an old friendship, Galadriel makes for land and Nori builds a rapport with the mysterious meteor man. This is also the first episode where we meet some dwarves and also encounter some very well-designed monsters that our heroes will be doing battle with.

We first see the Harfoots, who are at the edge of a smoldering crater where a man just landed from, seemingly, outer space. Nori shows some serious courage as she approaches the man to rouse him, and he displays some apparent telekinetic abilities before passing out again. Nori and Poppy set The Stranger up to recover in hiding.

Galadriel paddles her way through The Sundering Sea. An intimidating shadow in the distance turns out to be a raft of shipwrecked humans. They are suspicious of Galadriel, and even more so when they realize she is an elf.

Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and Middle-earth Lore.After what seems like a whole age of waiting, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is finally here! The show, not the actual rings, of course. To see them, we are actually going to have to wait a little longer. In the second episode "Adrift", we see Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards), Lord of the Elvensmiths of Eregion, talk to Elrond (Robert Aramayo) about his next project, creating a powerful forge that will inevitably forge the titular rings and the One Ring.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power A Shadow of the Past and Adrift — Prime Video‘s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Season 1, Episode 1: A Shadow of the Past and Episode 2: Adrift TV Show Review. Fans of fantasy in general, and of Tolkien in [...]

Continue reading: TV Review: The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power: Season 1, Episodes 1-2 [Prime Video]...

[Warning: The following contains Major spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Episode 2, “Adrift.”] Orcs are nothing knew to J.R.R. Tolkien fans. Knowing this, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power team devised a way to refresh the fear the beastly creatures produced upon first watch of The Fellowship of the Ring in its premiere episodes. The Rings of Power orcs were seen in brief snippets in the Episode 1 prologue — first in gruesome battle with Galadriel’s brother, Finrod, and the rest of the elf army, and then in a short moment set in the aftermath of the war. In what felt like a shout-out to Gollum’s first Fellowship appearance, one orc pops its head up to show its eery, beady eyes through the trees of a hazy, shrouded forrest. The first up-close-and-personal encounter with an orc came in Episode 2, “Adrift,” when Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi) and teen son Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin) ...

Heitor Dhalia, one of Brazil’s foremost and most ambitious movie auteurs, director of “Drained,” “Adrift” and “Bald Mountain,” is teaming with Netflix to make “DNA do Crime,” a banner title for the U.S. streaming giant in Brazil, one of its largest international markets.

Described by Dhalia as “one of the biggest series ever produced in Brazil,” the eight-part scripted skein, which goes into production on Oct. 31, turns on a heist of epic proportions, which takes place on the Brazil-Paraguay border.

When federal police officers are called in to investigate, they discover “the beginning of a thread that unravels, like no other, the construction of crime in the country,” the synopsis runs.

“The series will try to open a new paradigm for the genre,” Dhalia told Variety. “It also talks about the tragic flaws in all of us, our deep nature,” he added.

Inspired by true events, “DNA do Crime” is created by Dhalia.

Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for the first two episodes of The Rings of Power."Speak, friend, and enter," reads the sign at the Doors of Durin in The Fellowship of the Ring. Let's just say that, after The Rings of Power, that line will be read in a completely different way. The second episode in the new Prime Video series, "Adrift," sees a beautiful and rather unusual friendship depicted on screen, the one between the Elf Elrond (Robert Aramayo) and Dwarf Prince Durin (Owain Arthur). Everyone at least a little familiar with The Lord of the Rings lore knows that Elves and Dwarves historically do not get along, so how come those two characters share such a strong bond?...

“Bind yourself to me,” Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) implores a man she’s only just met as the sea lashes at them both. In the second episode of Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, “Adrift,” our responsibility to each other — even when we’d rather keep to ourselves — is at the center of the action. An elf must trust a human; an elf and a dwarf mend an old rift; a Harfoot connects with a stranger who fell from the stars.

A friendship left dormant for too long prompted Elrond the elf to invoke the Rite of Sigin-tarâg in “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’s” second episode, forcing him into a battle of endurance with Prince Durin IV.

(Spoiler alert! This article contains discussion of plot details from “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” Season 1, Episode 2 – “Adrift.”)

As viewers came to learn in the second episode of the season, Robert Aramayo’s character, Elrond, had insulted his friend, Prince Durin IV of the dwarves, by not visiting him in two decades – a more significant amount of time for a dwarf than for the almost eternal elves. So, after he was refused entry to the Dwarves’ home, Khazad-dûm, Elrond invoked the Rite of Sigin-tarâg, a rock-breaking endurance test that if he lost, would leave him banished from their kingdom forever.

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