News

Last year, Fangoria Studios announced plans to bring some of Junji Ito's stories to the screen in the form of film adaptations. The first to be announced was Bloodsucking Darkness , with more promised from the pages of the Smashed: Junji Ito Story Collection manga. The latest update has Fangoria Studios teaming up with Through the Lens Entertainment to adapt the aforementioned story and Mystery of the Haunted House Part 1 and Part 2 . Producers under Fangoria Studios include Armen Aghaeian, Tara Ansley and Abhi Goel. Junji Ito will also serve as producer along with Yasu Kutami and Tsubasa Yamaguchi of Amuse Group USA, and Aditya Chand and Jay Van Hoy of Through the Lens Entertainment. Indie producer Carlos Aguirre will serve as executive producer. Related: Junji Ito Manga Bloodsucking Darkness Gets Live-Action Feature at Fangoria Studios Here's what Through the Lens owner and filmmaker Aditya Chand said about the projects: "Through...

Speak No Evil is a horror remake directed by James Watkins, starring Mackenzie Davis. Davis, considered one of the most underrated actors of the last decade, returns to horror after The Turning. The film offers a chance for Davis to showcase her acting range and gain the recognition she deserves.

One upcoming horror remake is a lot more exciting as its the deserved comeback of one of the most underrated actors of the last decade. The horror genre continues to have a great run, though it has faced some backlash for relying too much on sequels and remakes. Still, there are many of both coming up in the near future, and among the remakes to be released in 2024 is Speak No Evil. A remake of the 2022 movie of the same name by Christian Tafdrup, Speak No Evil is directed by James Watkins, and gives a horrifying twist to family vacations.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead doesn't think there'll be any more 'Birds of Prey' movies.The 39-year-old actress was under contract to play Huntress in multiple films in the franchise but after the first picture - which saw Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn team up with a gang of other female heroes - proved to be a box office flop on release in 2020, she admitted it's unlikely she'll be returning to the role.She told Independent.co.uk: “I love that film, even if it’s polarising. It’s got people who love it, and people who didn’t love it so much. And it wasn’t a flop by any means, but I think it also wasn’t quite enough of a success to keep on with it.“Which is unfortunate, because I loved playing her. But I was really thankful that I got to do something left of centre in the superhero world.

Quick Links Everything Everywhere All at Once Smashed the Oscars Fast X Had Plenty of Advantages Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Closed James Gunn's Marvel Saga Avatar: The Way of Water Made Box Office History Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Blended a Beloved Game with A-Listers The Menu Had Two Waves of Success The Little Mermaid Had a Monumental Disney+ Premiere John Wick: Chapter 4 is the Most Successful John Wick Movie Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Dominates Netflix The Super Mario Bros. Movie Was (Almost) the Most Successful of the Year

Sometimes, when a movie comes out, its success gets measured by the box office numbers. But in the streaming era, a movie gets two chances to thrive, one in the theaters and one on streaming platforms. 2023 had some major blockbusters, and it was a pretty good year for streaming, with several awesome movies...

Stars: Harvey Almond, Matthew Laird, Richard Summers-Calvert, Mia Lacostena, Jodi Hutton | Written by Charley McDougall | Directed by Louisa Warren

Cannibal Cabin, formerly Cannibal Lake, opens in 2002 with a trio of vacationers, one of whom is very pregnant, planning to spend a weekend jet skiing at a lake next to what looks like an abandoned scrap yard. Instead, they end up meeting a nasty end at the hands of a bunch of the kind of masked cannibals that tend to inhabit places like this.

From there we move to the present day where a group of friends including Matt, Jonah, and Chris are heading to a music festival they heard about from Faye whom Jen met at another festival while peeing behind a bush.

If this sounds familiar it’s probably because it is. They set off, bickering all the way only to find the shortcut Faye told them about leads to a closed road.

Jeff Howard to write and Executive Produce Fangoria Studios’ live-action feature film adaptation of “Junji Ito’S Bloodsucking Darkness”: "Legendary Japanese horror mangaka/manga author and artist Junji Ito and Fangoria Studios are set to produce Bloodsucking Darkness; a vampire tale from the beloved master of horror’s hit manga Smashed: Junji Ito Story Collection. Executive Producer and screenwriter Jeff Howard has been tapped to develop the screen adaptation on behalf of Fangoria Studios. Bloodsucking Darkness, a live action feature film of Ito’s acclaimed works, is set to be the first of three stories that Fangoria Studios plans to adapt from Smashed.

“Fangoria Studios is going to adapt my manga! I'm so excited to see how it will turn out,” said Ito. “I hope I get to see the trailer in my dreams tonight!,”said Junji Ito.

Junji Ito began his career as a manga horror writer while working as a dental technician.

“The Haunting of Hill House” writer Jeff Howard has been hired to develop Junji Ito’s manga “Bloodsucking Darkness” into a live-action feature film.

Fangoria Studios, a genre film and TV company, is backing the film. It’s set to be the first of three projects that Fangoria plans to adapt from Ito’s hit vampire series “Smashed: Junji Ito Story Collection.”

“Fangoria Studios is going to adapt my manga! I’m so excited to see how it will turn out,” said Ito, who is serving as a producer. “I hope I get to see the trailer in my dreams tonight.”

Ito began his career as a manga horror writer while working as a dental technician. Manga became his full-time job in the late 1980s and in 1998 as he began writing and illustrating “Uzumaki” in Big Comic Spirits. Since then, he has continued to publish works such as “Gyo” and “Smashed.

The actual reason that it takes Willow until Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 6 to release Amy from her rat spell is far more tragic than it seems, and truly demonstrates Willow's descent during the season. One of the first witches introduced in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Amy spends much of the show trapped in the body of a rat. But Willow, despite showing immense power and ability throughout seasons 5 and 6, seemingly waits until it suits her to save Amy.

Amy Madison was Buffy and Willow's fellow student at Sunnydale High. Introduced way back in season 1, episode 3, "Witch," Amy became a semi-regular character in the early seasons. Until Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season 3, episode 11, "Gingerbread," when an angry mob confronts Amy (along with Buffy and Willow), and Amy escapes by turning herself into a rat. Buffy and Willow attempt to reverse the spell, but are unsuccessful. Resultantly, Amy, in rodent form,...

In 1978, the Kinks sang: “He just spends his life, living in a rock ‘n’ roll fantasy; He just spends his life, living on the edge of reality.” This mid-1970s sentiment of California dreamin’ foregrounds a young woman with that same impossible, crazy and ultimately disenchanting dream — singer, songwriter, flame-haired trainwreck Daisy Jones played by the perfectly cast firecracker Riley Keough, Elvis’ granddaughter, in Amazon Prime Video’s “Daisy Jones & the Six.”

It’s part the familiar saga of the rise and splatter of a band like “Fleetwood Mac,” circa the album “Rumours:” the drugs, the demons and the outsized desires of its members. And then, driven by a spectacular performance by Keough, it’s about the power of finding one’s voice and hoping the journey liberates rather than destroys the seeker.

Based on Taylor Jenkins Reid’s New York Times bestseller, a chick lit book beloved by...

Mary Elizabeth Winstead has signed on to star opposite Ewan McGregor in the upcoming Showtime & Paramount+ series “A Gentleman in Moscow,” Variety has learned exclusively.

McGregor was first reported to be starring in the show back in August 2022. It is an adaptation of the Amor Towles novel of the same name. Production on the limited series is now underway. It will debut on Showtime in the U.S. and on Paramount+ in additional markets around the world.

Per the official logline, the series “follows Count Alexander Rostov (McGregor) who, in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, finds that his gilded past places him on the wrong side of history. Spared immediate execution, he is banished by a Soviet tribunal to an attic room in the opulent Hotel Metropol, threatened with death if he ever sets foot outside again. As the years pass and some of the most tumultuous decades in...

James Ponsoldt is expecting this question. Why did the guy who made films like “Smashed,” “The Spectacular Now,” and “The End of the Tour” — dark, knowing dramas about messed-up adults, typically with substance abuse problems and a host of neuroses — turn his attention to “Summering,” a film about four tween girls in the waning days of their favorite season?

He’s got the answer in hand: He’s a parent of three kids, his wife Megan works in the public-school system, and this is the stuff he wants to share with his family.

But the real answer? It’s still a James Ponsoldt film. It’s not as dark as its predecessors, but the filmmaker is still using his craft to ask some very deep questions. “Summering” is, after all, about a group of girls who discover a very dead body and must grapple with what to do next.

“Those...

There’s a moment within the first few minutes of Summering — James Ponsoldt’s delicate, affectionate tribute to the wonder years (or more specifically, the seasonal wonder months) between childhood’s end and teenage riots — that captures the blurred, giddy adrenaline rush of youth in full bloom. Four girls are goofing around, hiding in bathtubs and scaring each other with masks. Someone’s mom shoos them all out of the house. And then the quartet begins to sprint across a front lawn in slow motion, screaming and giggling as they...

Chicago – Filmmaker James Ponsoldt has earned the moniker “veteran” in front of his name, after notable hits like “The Spectacular Now,” “The End of the Tour” and “The Circle” (with Tom Hanks). He’s back with a seasonal film called “Summering,” featuring four girls going through their own “Stand by Me” moment.

Ponsoldt’s latest film was co-written with Benjamin Percey, and it’s possibly his most romantic. It’s a quasi-reimagining of the “Stand By Me” story … but this time it’s a group of girl pre-teens that discover a dead body, and are celebrating their long grade school bond right before transitioning to middle school. Instead of going to the authorities regarding their find, they decide to investigate on their own, leading to the last adventure of their summer and the path to whatever is coming next. The cast includes Sarah Cooper, Megan Mullally, Ashley Madekwe and Lake Bell as their mothers.

When we asked Sech — whose syrupy delivery makes him one of the most romantic singers in reggaeton — to come up with a list of lovey-dovey Valentine’s Day songs, the task was almost too hard for him. “The first thing you have to write in this article is, ‘Sech says picking five romantic songs is way too complicated!’” he laughs during a recent phone call from Panama. “But I’m going to go for it.”

Part of that is because the eclectic artist says he listens to way too much music to narrow things down.

I might be tempted to call writer-director James Ponsoldt’s new coming-of-age film about four young girls who discover the dead body of a man on the last summer days before starting middle school Stand By She. Okay I will. Its actual title is Summering and it is a sweet and sincere attempt to give young girls the kind of edge-of-turning-teen story of a last summer of no worries with your friends that has mostly been reserved for boys in classic Hollywood films in the genre. With a screenplay Ponsoldt, with co-writer Benjamin Percy, was inspired to create coming out of the pandemic, and new questions about life presented to our youngest members of the planet, they land on a somewhat dark situation. Four carefree young girls come face to face with death, and some special bonding in this unusual entry into the Kids section of the Sundance Film Festival where it is premiering today.

James Ponsoldt is having the kind of career that future students of the business of film may study with some confusion. He made his name by turning out three indie dramas in four years – “Smashed,” “The Spectacular Now,” and “The End of the Tour” – all well-received, all running the Sundance-premiere-to-boutique-distributor pipeline. But he fumbled on the next step, an adaptation of Dave Eggers’ “The Circle” starring Emma Watson and Tom Hanks, and he’s spent the past five years directing for television.

Continue reading ‘Summering’ Review: James Ponsoldt Makes A Pleasant But Lightweight Coming-Of-Age Tale Return [Sundance] at The Playlist.

With the exception of 2017’s The Circle (which received a Tribeca Film Festival premiere), James Ponsoldt had his four previous films Off the Black (2006), Smashed (2012), The Spectacular Now (2013) and The End of the Tour (2015) all premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. The filmmaker has stayed consistently busy with sprinkling of television projects but he got back in the saddle hitting the half dozen mark this summer on Ponsoldt’s a coming-of-age Stand By Me sounding Summering. Shot in the state of Utah, the cast is comprised of Lia Barnett, Lake Bell, Sarah Cooper, Ashley Madekwe, Madalen Mills, Megan Mullally, Eden Grace Redfield and Sanai Victoria.…...

Exclusive: James Ponsoldt is in negotiations to direct 3000 Pictures’ Nothing to See Here, based on Kevin Wilson’s New York Times bestselling novel. Ponsoldt will reteam with Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, who are adapting the novel and previously collaborated with Ponsoldt on The Spectacular Now. They are producing, and the author is exec producer.

Published in October 2019 by the HarperCollins imprint Ecco, the novel was a bestseller and the paperback went on sale this week. It’s a humorous, emotional story of class, family, love and friendship centered on the relationship between Lillian and Madison, two former boarding school friends from completely different backgrounds. A decade after Lillian’s sudden and controversial expulsion from school, Madison is married to a prominent senator and Lillian still lives at home with her mother. So the last thing Lilian expects is a job offer from her old friend. The job: taking care of Madison’s step-children.

Movie history is full of great long takes. In “Goodfellas,” Martin Scorsese shows off Henry Hill’s hot shot status by tracking him as he makes his way through a nightclub. Alfonso Cuarón sticks his camera inside of a moving car as it’s being ambushed and never cuts in order to maximize tension in “Children of Men.” Most Steve McQueen films capture characters’ pain by holding a static shot for minutes on end so the experience feels just as punishing for the viewer. Usually, this kind of balletic filmmaking comes from directors known for bold, ambitious gambles. James Ponsoldt, the filmmaker behind “Smashed” and “The End of the Tour,” is not a name one often sees associated with such virtuoso filmmaking. And yet, 24 minutes into Ponsoldt’s third feature, “The Spectacular Now,” comes one of the most delicate and soulful long takes of the century.

“The Spectacular Now” debuted at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival,...

On our Corpse Club podcast last year, we recorded a retrospective series on the 2010s and it really put into perspective how great the last ten years have been for original horror content. We went from years in the early 2000s where it would be tough for me to put together a top ten list to a situation where it’s hard for many people to keep up with all the great horror content across different mediums and streaming services.

For those that are new to Daily Dead, we handle our year-end lists a little differently. Rather than just covering films, our lists can extend to TV, games, collectibles, events, and anything else genre-related. In short, we’re sharing with you a list of our favorite horror experiences from 2019. Check back every day over the next week to find out what made the cut for the rest of the Daily Dead team.

Stand-up comedian Nina Geld throws up after every set. That’s just one of the painful details we learn about the wonderfully complex character Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays in “All About Nina,” a striking and at times uncomfortably personal feature debut from writer-director Eva Vives that makes good on its title by not shying away from the emotional damage that makes its protagonist so compelling.

It takes guts to be this brutally honest onstage, and even more to do so on-screen, where the movie serves as a fossil record of the enormous weight its creator needed to get off her chest, but Vives gets it: If you’re going to unload this kind of baggage, you might as well do it through comedy — or in this case, through an unusually turbulent romantic comedy, wherein New Yorker Nina flees to Los Angeles to escape an abusive lover (Chace Crawford) and pursue...

Mary Elizabeth Winstead landed her first TV gig when she was 12 years old, appearing in an episode of “Touched by An Angel.” Since then, she has spent the last 20 years in films that scaled large and small, portraying a wide range of complicated, fully realized women.

Many of these performances deserved attention on the awards landscape, such as her role as a terrorized prisoner in “10 Cloverfield Lane” and turn as an alcoholic in the drama “Smashed,” though she landed an Independent Spirit nom for the part. And it’s still puzzling how her turn Ewan McGregor’s crafty fiancée in the third season of “Fargo” managed to elude more attention.

Now, Winstead is back on the big screen with another bold turn in “All About Nina,” the feature debut from writer-director Eva Vives. So about Nina: She’s a caustic stand-up comedian who exudes confidence onstage but is less...

Last year’s annual Los Angeles Film Festival started June 14 with Colin Trevorrow’s ill-fated “The Book of Henry” as its opening-night film, and continued with a program full of emerging independent filmmakers. The result was rock-bottom attendance with minimal press coverage, save from media sponsor The Los Angeles Times.

This year marks its first in a fall slot (September 20-28), a berth between the Toronto and New York film festivals. The opening-night premiere by record exec-turned filmmaker Andrew Slater was La-centric music documentary “Echo in the Canyon;” held at the outdoor John Ford Amphitheater, a balmy Jakob Dylan and Michelle Phillips concert followed.

Is this the vibe that will let Laff finally find its identity? Produced by Film Independent and now in its 24th year, the festival was once a summer home for quality international titles, then a place for world-premiere indie titles and films from under-represented demographics, it...

Last year’s annual Los Angeles Film Festival started June 14 with Colin Trevorrow’s ill-fated “The Book of Henry” as its opening-night film, and continued with a program full of emerging independent filmmakers. The result was rock-bottom attendance with minimal press coverage, save from media sponsor The Los Angeles Times.

This year marks its first in a fall slot (September 20-28), a berth between the Toronto and New York film festivals. The opening-night premiere by record exec-turned filmmaker Andrew Slater was La-centric music documentary “Echo in the Canyon;” held at the outdoor John Ford Amphitheater, a balmy Jakob Dylan and Michelle Phillips concert followed.

Is this the vibe that will let Laff finally find its identity? Produced by Film Independent and now in its 24th year, the festival was once a summer home for quality international titles, then a place for world-premiere indie titles and films from under-represented demographics, it...

As festivals around the world continue to come to terms with the rise of serial television and new viewing platforms, Tiff hosted a special premiere this year of the first two episodes of Sorry For Your Loss, a 10-episode, half-hour drama from Facebook Watch. Directed by James Ponsoldt, it stars Elizabeth Olsen as Leigh Shaw, a young widow struggling to get her life back on track in the wake of her husband’s unexpected death. Accompanied by series creator Kit Steinkellner and co-star Mamoudou Athie, who plays Leigh’s husband Matt, Ponsoldt and Olsen came to the Deadline studio to discuss the show and the issues it raises.

Steinkellner revealed that the inspiration for the show came from a troubling moment in her own life. “There’s a flashback scene in the pilot,” she said, “in which Lizzie’s character wakes up in the middle of the night. Her husband is nowhere to be found,...

Science, bitch! Deadline reports that Aaron Paul is joining the cast of “Westworld” for its upcoming third season, marking the three-time Emmy winner’s return to prestige television after his roles in “Breaking Bad” and “The Path.” No word yet on who the former Jesse Pinkman will be playing, but speculation is sure to abound — especially as “Westworld,” even more than most shows, thrives on encouraging audiences to spend as much time figuring out what might happen next as they do actually watching it.

All three of Paul’s Emmy wins came for his lauded performance opposite Bryan Cranston on “Breaking Bad,” which aired five seasons from 2008–2013 and has become one of the most revered television series of all time; in addition to starring on all three seasons of Hulu’s cult drama “The Path,” he voices Todd Chavez on Netflix’s “BoJack Horseman.” Paul’s silver-screen career includes roles...

Facebook Watch has released the first trailer for a new series that they've produced called Sorry For Your Loss. The original series stars Elizabeth Olsen as a young woman who is in the process of dealing with the death of her husband and she starts to find out a lot of stuff about him that she didn't previously know. She is also trying to figure out how to move forward with life. Here’s the show’s official synopsis:

The sudden death of her husband upends and transforms every relationship in Leigh Shaw’s life. It also forces her to realize there was a lot about her husband that she didn’t know.

The show is simultaneously devastating and uplifting, with grounded, flawed characters desperate to find humor anywhere they can. The series dives into grief as an unavoidable, universal, transformative part of life. Leigh’s journey will teach us...

Mary Elizabeth Winstead has enjoyed quite the eclectic career in film, ranging from indie roles in the likes of Smashed and Swiss Army Man to more mainstream flicks like Live Free or Die Hard, 10 Cloverfield Lane and Scott Pilgrim vs the World. More recently she’s been comfortable on television with a role in FX’s […]

The post ‘All About Nina’ Trailer: Mary Elizabeth Winstead Is a Struggling Stand-Up Comedian appeared first on /Film.

Spoiler Alert: This story contains details of Fargo‘s Season 3 finale.

After turning heads and winning praise for her turn as a struggling alcoholic in the indie film Smashed, Mary Elizabeth Winstead raises her game as a damsel who absolutely refuses to be in distress in the third season of FX’s Fargo. During FX’s TCA session in January, a Fargo sizzle reel played set to the tune of the David Bowie-narrated Peter and the Wolf. Winstead’s character, ex-con Nikki Swango, was described as the cat, and you can say she always landed on her feet no matter what odds she faced: Whether it was picking herself up from a fight, escaping a overturned prison bus, to annihilating the nefarious V.M. Varga’s men (David Thewlis) and sending the bastard on the run. Says Fargo series creator Noah Hawley about selecting Winstead for the role...

The Los Angeles Film Festival starts June 14 with Colin Trevorrow’s “The Book of Henry” as its opening-night film, but in its 23rd year the festival still hasn’t found its proper place on the film calendar.

Produced by Film Independent, Laff has always been something of a feathered fish. Some of this stems from its summer timeframe: It arrives at mid-year, more than two months before new awards contenders reveal themselves at Telluride and long after acquisitions festivals like Toronto and Sundance have done their work (with support from SXSW and Tribeca that follow) .

Laff has tried to make lemons into organic lemonade: Under the direction of recently departed Stephanie Allain, the Laff moved away from the quality international fare favored by former programmer David Ansen to embrace its indie roots and chase world premieres from under-represented demographics.

It’s a worthy-minded strategy, but the result was a lineup...

The Los Angeles Film Festival starts June 14 with Colin Trevorrow’s “The Book of Henry” as its opening-night film, but in its 23rd year the festival still hasn’t found its proper place on the film calendar.

Produced by Film Independent, Laff has always been something of a feathered fish. Some of this stems from its summer timeframe: It arrives at mid-year, more than two months before new awards contenders reveal themselves at Telluride and long after acquisitions festivals like Toronto and Sundance have done their work (with support from SXSW and Tribeca that follow) .

Laff has tried to make lemons into organic lemonade: Under the direction of recently departed Stephanie Allain, the Laff moved away from the quality international fare favored by former programmer David Ansen to embrace its indie roots and chase world premieres from under-represented demographics.

It’s a worthy-minded strategy, but the result was a lineup...

I have to assume the novel that The Circle is based on delivers its story in a way that leaves the film adaptation nearly unrecognizable. That, or I have to believe that author Dave Eggers (Away We Go, Promised Land, A Hologram for the King) has completely lost his way. That may seem like a strange statement if you know that Eggers has co-writing credit on the film, along with director James Ponsoldt, but there’s a wide gulf between writing credit and responsibility for the writing.

I make this odd claim because Eggers’ writing has been sharp in the past, and The Circle is a boring, belabored, and insulting spin on a premise that might easily have been one of the year’s best films.

We don’t really need another run at privacy issues, or tech company domination (though that’s what people are scared of these days,...

Nobody sets out to make a bad movie. So why did cautionary tech thriller “The Circle” — adapted by lauded writer-director James Ponsoldt (“The Spectacular Now,” “The End of the Tour”) and beloved novelist Dave Eggers from his own 2013 bestseller — earn such negative reviews (43 on Metacritic, 17 on Rotten Tomatoes) and bomb at the box office ($9.3 million in 3,163 theaters)?

The movie went wrong in five significant ways.

1. The movie was foreign financed.

“The Circle” was developed by A-list ex-DreamWorks producers Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald’s Parkes+MacDonald Image Nation, which raised financing from Imagenation Abu Dhabi Fz and foreign sales company FilmNation on the power of Tom Hanks, who was the first star on board via his Playtone banner.

In order to raise an $18-million budget, globally bankable star Emma Watson was cast in a central leading role that demanded she be in every scene. Veering in tone from satiric comedy to naturalistic drama,...

Nobody sets out to make a bad movie. So why did cautionary tech thriller “The Circle” — adapted by lauded writer-director James Ponsoldt (“The Spectacular Now,” “The End of the Tour”) and beloved novelist Dave Eggers from his own 2013 bestseller — earn such negative reviews (43 on Metacritic, 17 on Rotten Tomatoes) and bomb at the box office ($9.3 million in 3,163 theaters)?

The movie went wrong in five significant ways.

1. The movie was foreign financed.

“The Circle” was developed by A-list ex-DreamWorks producers Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald’s Parkes+MacDonald Image Nation, which raised financing from Imagenation Abu Dhabi Fz and foreign sales company FilmNation on the power of Tom Hanks, who was the first star on board via his Playtone banner.

In order to raise an $18-million budget, globally bankable star Emma Watson was cast in a central leading role that demanded she be in every scene. Veering in tone from satiric comedy to naturalistic drama,...

What we have here is one of those up-to-the-minute attacks on Internet atrocities that stopped being up-to-the-minute the second co-writer Dave Eggers, on whose 2013 novel The Circle is based, finished the script and hit "send." Fact trumps (I use the verb advisedly) fiction everywhere these days, especially with Congress giving Web providers a free hand to sell every little thing they know about us. What this movie needed was the satiric depth-charge of a Stanley Kubrick in his Dr. Strangelove period, a sort of How I Learned to Stop Worrying...

This weekend is all about the next one. The last weekend of April means next week is the annual May Marvel release — here, it’s Disney’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.” And that means rival studios are in duck-and-cover mode, clearing a path that extends a week in advance.

So, expect to see “The Fate of the Furious” (Universal) repeat for a third time at #1, with around $20 million gross. By Sunday, “Fate” will be around $190 million domestic on worldwide gross of $1 billion — a record-low domestic share for a film reaching these heights.

Meanwhile, “Guardians” will open in most of Europe and other territories (but not China, Japan, or Russia) ahead of its domestic May 4 debut. Going abroad first not only emphasizes the increased dominance of the international market in studio strategies, but it also can spike already-strong domestic interest.

We’re glad to have that to look forward...

Welcome back to the Weekend Warrior, your weekly look at the new movies hitting theaters this weekend, as well as other cool events and things to check out.

Even Emma Watson and Tom Hanks May Not Be Enough to Make a Mark As April Ends

The last weekend of April, and the “slower” spring movie season is ending this weekend, leading directly into the start of the lucrative summer box office next week. As has been the case in past years, the last couple weekends in April see a couple movies hoping to bring in any amount of money before the first big summer blockbuster, and other movies that will steal away their theaters. Last weekend was pretty sad, but hopefully a few of this weekend’s movies will fare better.

The movie that stands the best chance at finding an audience this weekend is the tech industry thriller The Circle...

This month brings Amazonian exploration, shoot-’em-ups, boundary-pushing documentaries, kaiju battles, and more. Before the summer genuinely kicks off, and with it the Cannes Film Festival, there’s also a handful of films from last year’s outing. Check out our picks for what to see this month and chime in with what you’re most looking forward to.

Matinees to See: Win it All (4/7), Gifted (4/7), Mine (4/7), Their Finest (4/7), The Void (4/7), Aftermath (4/7), Salt and Fire (4/7), The Assignment (4/7), Queen of the Desert (4/7), The Student (4/14), By the Time it Gets Dark (4/14), Little Boxes (4/14), The Fate of the Furious (4/14), The Promise (4/21), Tramps (4/21), One Week and a Day (4/28), Obit (4/26), Buster’s Mal Heart (4/28), and Sleight (4/28)

15. The Circle (James Ponsoldt; April 28)

Synopsis: A woman lands a dream job at a powerful tech company called the Circle, only to uncover a nefarious agenda that will affect the lives of her friends, family and that of humanity.

When the first trailer for The Circle landed late last year, I didn't really get what the big deal was. It looked like a fairly straight forward thriller unfolding in the tech world but not being familiar with either Dave Eggers' novel or having read a long synopsis of the movie, that first trailer revealed very little of the story.

Directed by James Ponsoldt of Smashed, The Spectacular Now and End of Tour fame, the movie stars Emma Watson as an up-and-coming new employee at The Circle, an all encompassing tech company that treats its employees like family.

In the newly minted trailer which delves a bit deeper into the plot, Watson makes friends with fellow co [Continued ...]...

There’s one thing filmmaker James Ponsoldt just can’t seem to get away from: obsession. With films like “Smashed,” “The Spectacular Now” and “The End of the Tour” under his belt, Ponsoldt has a knack for humanizing characters with seemingly outsized needs, from addicts to recluses.

It’s that kind of obsession that also drives Ponsoldt’s next film, “The Circle.” Ponsoldt (who has always been a big believer in the power of the cinematic adaptation) has adapted Dave Eggers’ 2013 novel of the same name, which follows May (Emma Watson), a young woman who is hired by a powerful internet company (think Facebook, but bigger) and slowly falls down the rabbit hole of its many dark conspiracies and major secrets.

Read More: ‘The Circle’ Trailer: James Ponsoldt Throws Emma Watson and Tom Hanks Into A Corporate Conspiracy

“It’s rarely a conscious thing, in terms of the stories I’m attracted to,...

If, a decade ago, you would have told me that two of my absolute favorite pieces of media from 2016 would come from the guy who directed the Night at the Museum movies, I'd have said you were nuts. But it actually happened, and Shawn Levy's 21 Laps production company produced both the Oscar-nominated Arrival and the incredibly addictive Stranger Things last year. The company is now continuing its exploration of science fiction; THR reports that they've hired The Spectacular Now, The End of The Tour, and Smashed director James Ponsoldt to direct a film adaptation of Larry Niven's 1971 short story "Inconstant Moon."

This story raises the question: How would you spend your last night on Earth? When the Moon suddenly starts shining brighter, Stan and Leslie realize the sun must have gone nova and they only have a few hours until the Earth rotates into the deadly sunshine.

Ponsoldt is a terrific filmmaker,...

A young woman goes to work for the biggest tech company in the world that truly believes "sharing is caring" in the first trailer for The Circle. While social media has certainly exploded in popularity within the past decade, this adaptation centers on a company that has a much different social media platform of transparency. This first trailer showcases a tech company that believes everything in the world deserves to be seen and shared by everyone.

Based on the international best-seller by Dave Eggers, The Circle is a thrilling modern morality tale starring Emma Watson, Tom Hanks and John Boyega. As she rises through the ranks of the world's largest tech and social media company, The Circle, Mae (Emma Watson) is encouraged by company founder Eamon Bailey (Tom Hanks) to live her life with complete transparency. But no one is really safe when everyone is watching.

In the original novel by Dave Eggers,...

James Ponsoldt has become one of the most reliable indie directors in the industry following dramas like “Smashed,” “The Spectacular Now” and “The End Of The Tour.” His sensitive touch explores the nature of relationships in ways that are profoundly reliable and authentic, and now he’s set to play on his biggest canvas yet with “The Circle.”

Read More: James Ponsoldt Teaming With Disney For Ambitious First Studio Film ‘Wild City’

We’ve been looking forward to this one for quite some time, as production began well over a year ago with Emma Watson, Tom Hanks and John Boyega, and now the first trailer has been released, courtesy of USA Today. The film is based on Dave Eggers’ 2013 novel of the same name, which centers around a young woman (Watson) who is hired by a powerful internet company and slowly falls down the rabbit hole of its dark conspiracies.

Though Aaron Paul has been busy working on two TV shows — Netflix’s “BoJack Horseman” and Hulu’s “The Path” — this past year, he still finds time to star in star in films this year, including “Triple 9,” “Central Intelligence” and the upcoming indie thriller “Come and Find Me.” The film follows David (Paul) whose idyllic relationship with Claire (Annabelle Wallis) comes to an abrupt end after she disappears without a trace. Incapable of letting her memory go, David follows Claire’s trail down a dangerous path and discovers she was leading a double life. Watch a trailer for the film below.

Read More: Aaron Paul to Produce Thriller ‘Blackmail’ at NBC

The film is written and directed by Zack Whedon, the brother of acclaimed screenwriter and director Joss Whedon. Zack is best known for writing episodes of such acclaimed TV shows as “Deadwood,” “Rubicon” and most recently, “Halt and Catch Fire.

The Stephanie Allain era of Film Independent’s Los Angeles Film Festival is over.

The prolific producer (“Beyond the Lights”) is leaving her role of five years as director of the summer festival to spend more time on her first avocation. She will be replaced by another independent producer, Jennifer Cochis (“Smashed”), who for the past two years worked closely as Creative Director with Allain on all aspects of the festival.

Allain is currently in production on Justin Simien’s Netflix series “Dear White People,” in post-production on Gerard McMurray’s “Burning Sands” and prepping Clark Johnson’s “Juanita,” set to star Alfre Woodard.

Film Independent President Josh Welsh has watched Cochis move up from Senior Programmer to Creative Director, he said in a statement. Working with Allain, she was instrumental in “turning the Festival into a powerful platform for discovering new and diverse talent.”

Promoting Allain’s protege suggests...

The Stephanie Allain era of Film Independent’s Los Angeles Film Festival is over.

The prolific producer (“Beyond the Lights”) is leaving her role of five years as director of the summer festival to spend more time on her first avocation. She will be replaced by another independent producer, Jennifer Cochis (“Smashed”), who for the past two years worked closely as Creative Director with Allain on all aspects of the festival.

Allain is currently in production on Justin Simien’s Netflix series “Dear White People,” in post-production on Gerard McMurray’s “Burning Sands” and prepping Clark Johnson’s “Juanita,” set to star Alfre Woodard.

Film Independent President Josh Welsh has watched Cochis move up from Senior Programmer to Creative Director, he said in a statement. Working with Allain, she was instrumental in “turning the Festival into a powerful platform for discovering new and diverse talent.”

Promoting Allain’s protege suggests...

You can add James Ponsoldt to the list of independent filmmakers trying their hand at TV. Following the likes of Lena Dunham (“Girls”), Sam Esmail (“Mr. Robot”) and Joe Swanberg (“Easy”), Ponsoldt is working on a half-hour pilot comedy called “The Legend of Master Legend” for Amazon. John Hawkes is in talks to star in the new series.

Read More: James Ponsoldt Teaming With Disney For Ambitious First Studio Film ‘Wild City’

Micah Fitzerman-Blue & Noah Harpster (“Transparent”) are writing and executive-producing the pilot, which is based on a Rolling Stone article about real-life superheroes — namely Master Legend himself, whose jurisdiction is mostly confined to the Las Vegas Strip. Hawkes, who received an Oscar nomination for his performance in “Winter’s Bone” and was more recently seen in “Too Late” and “Everest,” would play said vigilante.

Read More: EuropaCorp Lands James Ponsoldt’s ‘The Circle’ Adaptation, Starring Tom Hanks and Emma Watson...

John Hawkes is one of those guys whose name you might not know, but you've definitely seen his work. He's appeared in TV shows like Deadwood, Lost, and Eastbound & Down, and a metric ton of solid movies, including his Oscar-nominated turn in Winter's Bone. He's a consistently enjoyable presence on screen, but he's often relegated to supporting cast territory and it's rare that he's the lead role in a project. But that's about to change...at least for one big upcoming creative endeavor.

Deadline reports that Hawkes has scored the lead in a new Amazon pilot called The Legend of Master Legend.

Written by Micah Fitzerman-Blue & Noah Harpster based on Joshuah Bearman’s Rolling Stone article about real-life superheroes, the project centers on Master Legend (Hawkes), a man who tries to defend justice and defeat wrongdoers on the Las Vegas Strip.

Fitzerman-Blue and Harpster are writer/producers for Amazon's successful show Transparent,...

Over its first two seasons, AMC's Halt & Catch Fire has built quite an audience as one of the top summer TV shows to watch. Heading into its third season, the show is trying something different, debuting Tuesday, August 23 with its 10-episode season bleeding into the fall TV season. While we'll have to wait and see how this show manages to fare in the early fall months, for those who haven't caught up with the series quite yet, we have a great contest opportunity, where you can pick up the entire Season 2 set on DVD.

The critically acclaimed AMC hit drama, Halt and Catch Fire: The Complete Second Season, was released on DVD from Anchor Bay Entertainment on August 9. From creators Chris Cantwell (Vicariously) and Christopher C. Rogers, comes the ten-episode series, featuring buzzworthy performances from Lee Pace (Lincoln, Pushing Daisies, Guardians of the Galaxy), Scoot McNairy (Argo), Mackenzie Davis (Smashed), Kerry Bish&#233 (Argo,...

Director James Ponsoldt has been making some high-quality dramas over the past few years. Smashed (seen above), The Spectacular Now, and The End of the Tour are strong films with great performances. Right now, Ponsoldt is busy with his adaptation of Dave Eggers’ The Circle, and after he’s finished that picture, he may tackle his first major studio film, Wild City. Below, learn […]

The post ‘End of the Tour’ Director James Ponsoldt and Disney Will Explore the ‘Wild City’ appeared first on /Film.