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Film directors walk viewers through one scene of their movies, showing the magic, motives and the mistakes from behind the camera.
Film directors walk viewers through one scene of their movies, showing the magic, motives and the mistakes from behind the camera.
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Mekado Murphy
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Not long into “Black Adam,” a preteen boy looks up at the muscled hulk of Dwayne Johnson and begs for his help: “We could use a superhero right now.” Speak for yourself, kid.
Do we need another superhero with another convoluted origin story that stretches back thousands of years and fulfills a whacko destiny? Do we really need another clutch of secondary level heroes to muddy focus? We’re almost 40 deep into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and a dozen in the DC universe. You can almost smell the fumes now, can’t you?
“Black Adam” isn’t bad, it’s just predictable and color-by-numbers, stealing from other films like an intellectual property super-villain. But Johnson is a natural in the title role, mixing might with humor and able to deliver those necessary wooden lines. Why he hasn’t had a starring role in a DC or Marvel superhero flick until now is astonishing — c’mon, he’s built himself into a freaking superhero in street clothes already.
Like Marvel’s “Eternals,” “Black Adam” gets out of the blocks very sluggishly with the tangled tale of our setting — Kahndaq, a fictional Middle Eastern kingdom in 2,600 B.C. that has wizards, a blood-thirsty king, a magical crown and Eternium, a rare metallic ore with energy-manipulating properties (Hello, Vibranium from “Black Panther”).
Flash-forward to present day, where Kahndaq is under the cruel rule of the organized crime syndicate Intergang and its citizens are ripe to rebel. They think they may have a leader in Black Adam (here Teth Adam, when he is introduced), who is released from his 5,000-year-long tomb and is naturally cranky. Is he a force for good or bad? (Or for a new sub-franchise?) The answer is yes to all.
Yet the other superheroes in the DC pantheon aren’t sure about the new guy and send what can only be described as the Plan B of muscle from leftover members of a knock-off organization called the Justice Society of America.
There’s Doctor Fate (a dollar-store Doctor Strange played by Pierce Brosnan, who somehow keeps his dignity), Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo, nicely playing a dweeby and always hungry giant), Aldis Hodge as a one-note Hawkman and Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone, who can control — checks notes — the wind. They apparently left at home the superhero with the ability to open jars.
Black Adam is more than a match for all of them combined. He can fly, move as fast as The Flash, catch rockets, deflect bullets and harness his own bluish electricity. Mostly he does this weirdly passive thing of just floating. “I kneel before no one” he intones, which might explain it.
Director Jaume Collet-Serra and the design team do a great job in every department but are let down by a derivative and baggy screenplay by Adam Sztykiel, Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani that goes from one violent scene to another like a video game in order to paper over a plot both undercooked and overcooked. At one point, with the audience exhausted by all the carnage, they introduce skeletons who rise up as a legion from hell, just what we wanted.
They nicely include pockets of humor that DC has not always done well — a recurring bit with “Baby Come Back” and teaching Black Adam satire are fun; a Clint Eastwood gag fails — and there may have been three natural endings piling up before the final, manipulative one. (“This can only end one way,” says the script. Don’t believe it.)
Amidst the punching superheroes are two humans — a rebel leader and her skateboard-and-comics-loving pre-teen son, played superbly by Sarah Shahi and Bodhi Sabongui, respectively. Comedian Mohammed Amer is a much-needed bolt of bright humor.
Most intriguing — and the angle most fruitful to lean into — is the notion of hero itself. The Justice Society members are shocked to find that they aren’t seen as heroic to the residents of Kahndaq, living 27 years under oppression. Black Adam has come to help, even if he’s a little more violent. Residents wonder where were the guys with all the superpowers for almost three decades while they suffered — a nice dig at Western nations.
“There are only heroes and villains. Heroes don’t kill people,” a confused Hawkman states. Black Adam replies: “Well, I do.” It is Shahiby’s character who notes that it’s easy to call someone a hero when you’re the one drawing the line.
The number of — ahem — call-backs to other films is pretty sad — “Tomb Raider,” “Back to the Future” and plenty of “Star Wars” (even, unforgivably, the line “You’re our only hope”.) It’s a film that is sometimes self-aware, as when the kid urges Black Adam to come up with a catchphrase that will sell lunchboxes.
He does, but it makes little sense: “Tell them, ‘The man in black sent you.’” Wait, he was sent by someone else? Do they mean Johnny Cash? Actually that may be a clue. What the filmmakers probably had in mind was cash — selling those lunchboxes.
“Black Adam,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release that hits cinemas on Friday, is rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence, intense action and some language. Running time: 124 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.
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MPAA Definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
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Online: https://www.warnerbros.com/movies/black-adam
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Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
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CNN
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Anne Hathaway chooses to look at the troubling period after her Academy Award win almost a decade ago as an “opportunity” to learn.
Hathaway, who won a best supporting actress Oscar for her turn in 2012’s “Les Misérables,” spoke at Elle’s Women in Hollywood event on Monday night about the hatred she endured online and in the media leading up to and, particularly, after her win.
“Ten years ago, I was given an opportunity to look at the language of hatred from a new perspective,” Hathaway said, according to a transcript published by the magazine’s website. “For context – this was a language I had employed with myself since I was 7. And when your self-inflicted pain is suddenly somehow amplified back at you at, say, the full volume of the internet … It’s a thing.”
Hathaway said her experience made her realize “I had no desire to have anything to do with this line of energy” and “I would no longer create art from this place.”
“I would no longer hold space for it, live in fear of it, nor speak its language for any reason. To anyone. Including myself,” she said.
Hathaway won a flood of awards for her performance that year, including a Golden Globe and a BAFTA and was considered a heavy favorite for the Oscar. With her success, however, came harsh criticism.
“There is a difference between existence and behavior,” Hathaway added. “You can judge behavior. You can forgive behavior, or not. But you do not have the right to judge – and especially not hate – someone for existing. And if you do, you’re not where it’s at.”
She concluded on a positive note, pointing out how hatred is a learned behavior that can be unlearned and changed.
“The good news about hate being learned is that whoever learned it can learn,” she said. “There is a brain there. I hope they give themselves a chance to relearn love.”
Earlier in her speech, the “Devil Wears Prada” actress acknowledged the evening’s other honorees, who included Sigourney Weaver, Ariana DeBose, Sydney Sweeney, Michelle Yeoh, Issa Rae, Zoe Kravitz and Olivia Wilde.
“Be happy for women. Period,” Hathaway said. “Especially be happy for high-achieving women. Like, it’s not that hard.”
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LOS ANGELES — Actor and rapper Kaalan Walker has been sentenced to 50 years to life in prison for his conviction for raping aspiring models he met online, authorities said.
Walker, 27, was sentenced Monday in Superior Court in Los Angeles following his April conviction on three counts of forcible rape, one count of assault to commit oral copulation, two counts of statutory rape and two counts of rape by intoxication.
His lawyer, Andrew Flier, said the trial was unfair. He called the sentence “draconian” and said it would be appealed, NBC News reported.
Walker, whose rapper name is KR, played a gang member in the 2018 remake of the movie “Superfly” and also appeared in the 2017 film “Kings,” starring Halle Berry and Daniel Craig.
He was arrested in 2018 and charged with a series of assaults dating back to 2016 involving four women and three teenage girls.
Prosecutors said Walker used social media to contact aspiring models and offer them phony professional opportunities so they would meet him, then assaulted them.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mel Gibson can testify about what he learned from one of Harvey Weinstein’s accusers, a judge ruled Friday in the rape and sexual assault trial of the former movie mogul.
The 66-year-old actor and director was one of many witnesses, and by far the best known, whose identities were revealed in Los Angeles Superior Court. The judge and attorneys had taken a break from jury selection for motions on what evidence will be allowed at the trial, and who can testify. The witness list for the trial is sealed.
Judge Lisa B. Lench ruled that Gibson can testify in support of his masseuse and friend, who will be known as Jane Doe #3 at the trial. Weinstein is accused of committing sexual battery by restraint against the woman, one of 11 rape and sexual assault counts in the trial against the 70-year-old.
Prosecutors said that after getting a massage from the woman at a California hotel in Beverly Hills in May of 2010, a naked Weinstein followed her into the bathroom and masturbated. Weinstein has pleaded not guilty, and denied any non-consensual sexual activity.
Weinstein’s attorneys argued against allowing Gibson to testify, saying that what he learned from the woman while getting a massage from her does not constitute a “fresh complaint” by the woman under the law by which Gibson would take the stand. A “fresh complaint” under California law allows the introduction of evidence of sexual assault or another crime if the victim reported it to someone else voluntarily and relatively promptly after it happened.
Prosecutors said that when Gibson brought up Weinstein’s name by chance, the woman had a traumatic response and Gibson understood from her that she had been sexually assaulted. Gibson did not remember the timing of the exchange, but the prosecution will use another witness, Allison Weiner, who remembers speaking to both Gibson and the woman in 2015.
Judge Lench said Gibson’s testimony will depend on how the accuser describes the exchange with him when she takes the stand, and she may choose to rule against it at that time.
Weinstein attorney Mark Werksman then argued that if Gibson does take the stand, the defense should be allowed to cross-examine him about widely publicized antisemitic remarks Gibson made during an arrest in 2006, and about racist statements to a girlfriend that were recorded and publicized in 2010.
Lench said a wider discussion of Gibson’s racism was not relevant to the trial, but she would allow questioning of whether he had a personal bias and animus toward Weinstein.
Werksman argued that Gibson had such a bias both because Weinstein is Jewish, and because Weinstein published a book that criticized the depiction of Jews in the Gibson-directed 2004 film, “The Passion of the Christ.”
“Any evidence of Mr. Gibson’s racism or antisemitism would give rise to a bias against my client, who challenged him,” Werksman said.
The lawyer briefly, and mistakenly, said he thought the movie won a best picture Academy Award, but Weinstein, whose films once dominated the Oscars, shook his head as he sat at the defense table.
“Sorry, my client would know better than I would,” Werksman said. “But it was an award-winning movie.”
The defense also argued that Gibson was trying to whitewash his image by focusing on Weinstein’s wrongdoing and asserting himself as a champion of the #MeToo movement.
The prosecution argued that Gibson had made no such suggestions about himself, and that at the time of the conversation with his masseuse he said he was discussing getting into a business deal with Weinstein, showing there was no such bias.
Deputy District Attorney Marlene Martinez called Gibson’s past comments “despicable,” but said they had no relevance for the narrow purposes he would be called to the stand for.
Gibson’s testimony raises the prospect of two of Hollywood’s once most powerful men, who have undergone public downfalls, facing each other in court.
An email seeking comment from a representative for Gibson was not immediately returned.
In one of several similar rulings Friday, Lench also found that “Melrose Place” actor Daphne Zuniga could testify in a similar capacity for a woman known at the trial as Jane Doe #4, whom Weinstein is accused of raping in 2004 or 2005.
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused.
Weinstein is already serving a 23-year sentence for a 2020 conviction for rape and sexual assault in New York. The state’s highest court has agreed to hear his appeal in that case.
He was subsequently brought to Los Angeles for a trial that began Monday, five years after women’s stories about him gave massive momentum to the #MeToo movement.
Friday’s arguments came a day after the premiere of the film “She Said,” which tells the story of the work of the two New York Times reporters whose stories brought Weinstein down.
Weinstein’s attorneys previously sought to have the Los Angeles trial delayed because publicity from the film might taint the jury pool, but the judge denied their motion.
The trial is expected to last eight weeks. The judge and attorneys will return to the jury selection process on Monday morning, and opening statements are expected to begin on Oct. 24.
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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: twitter.com/andyjamesdalton
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NEW YORK (AP) — Gwen Carr sat up straight in her seat as she heard lines of dialogue delivered by the actor portraying Mamie Till-Mobley, the mother of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black boy whose lynching in Mississippi in 1955 catalyzed the U.S. civil rights movement.
“As I watched that film, I became Mamie Till,” Carr said last month at a private advance screening of “ Till,” the Orion Pictures and United Artists biopic that debuted Friday as the first ever feature length retelling of the historic atrocity and Till-Mobley’s pursuit of justice for Emmett.
Carr is the mother of Eric Garner, a Black man held in a fatal chokehold by a New York City police officer in 2014, during an encounter that began as an arrest for alleged unauthorized sale of cigarettes. His videotaped final gasps for air, viewed millions of times around the world, was an early flashpoint of the Black Lives Matter movement. She demanded that her fellow countrymen not look away or dismiss Garner as another casualty of an unjust policing system, but to instead see him as a reason to reform that system, similar to Till-Mobley’s message.
“I’ll tell anybody, ‘A mother can tell a child’s story better than anybody else,’” Carr said. “And that’s what she said in that movie.”
As “Till” debuts, the studio and production companies behind the film have partnered in a campaign to recognize Black women and Black mothers who are continuing Till-Mobley’s legacy and fight for justice, equality and equity. From civil rights and politics to business and performance art, the campaign includes events and screenings in select cities across the U.S. that honor the courageous works of Black women whose contributions have historically been overlooked, deemphasized or made a footnote.
Codie Elaine Oliver, a filmmaker and co-creator of the Oprah Winfrey Network docuseries “ Black Love,” was a featured speaker at a screening event on Tuesday in Los Angeles, along with TV personality and writer Natalie Manual Lee, who hosts the YouTube series “ Now with Natalie.” Both women are mothers to young Black children and said Till-Mobley’s story guides the work they do in their respective fields.
“I try to live every day, recognizing the pain of my ancestors, parents and grandparents, by being a storyteller who consciously showcases (Black people) as loving husbands and fathers and mothers and wives,” Oliver said. “I have not experienced what (Till-Mobley) experienced, but I recognize that any of us could, especially as Black mothers.”
In the late summer of 1955, Till-Mobley put Emmett on a train from Chicago to visit with his uncle and cousins in her native Mississippi. Much like Black women and men today give their children “the talk” about navigating traffic stops and other encounters with police officers, Till-Mobley warned Emmett that he was visiting a place where his safety depended on his ability to mute his outgoing, uncompromising nature around white people.
“Self-assured, confident about a future without limitations, he must have gazed out at the wide-open spaces of the Mississippi Delta in amazement,” Till-Mobley wrote of her son in a 2003 memoir co-authored with Christopher Benson. Emmett was “completely unaware of the boundaries that had begun to close in on him as soon as he got off that train.”
In the overnight hours of Aug. 28, 1955, Emmett was taken from his uncle’s Mississippi home at gunpoint by two vengeful white men. Emmett’s alleged crime? Flirting with the wife of one of his kidnappers.
Three days later, a fisherman on the Tallahatchie River discovered the teenager’s bloated corpse — one of his eyes was detached, an ear was missing, his head was shot and bashed in. Till-Mobley demanded that Emmett’s remains be taken back to Chicago for a public, open casket funeral that was attended by tens of thousands. And at the trial of his killers in Mississippi, which ended in their acquittals, Till-Mobley bravely took the witness stand to counter the perverse image of her son that had been painted for jurors and trial watchers.
Throughout the film, Till-Mobley is portrayed as a woman full of a sense of foreboding about sending her only child away to a place plagued by racial hatred. But her immense love for Emmett overpowers her pain and grief, at least enough to find a sense of purpose and meaning. In a 1995 interview with The Associated Press, 40 years after her son’s lynching, Till-Mobley, a woman of faith, said God had sent Emmett to Earth for the special assignment of waking up the nation and the world.
“The humanity and the brilliance of her, and how selfless of her as a Black woman to have stepped into this role as a figure of mourning and possibility,” said Danielle Deadwyler, who portrays Till-Mobley in the film. “If she did not have the courage to do that, then we would not have known, and the world probably would not have known, the ramifications of racism. She made us all aware.”
The mission to spread Emmett’s story, as only a mother could, had immediate impacts. The civil rights movement gained momentum. Rosa Parks, the civil rights figure arrested for refusing to give up her seat for a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in December 1955, said she was motivated that day by the injustice in Emmett’s case. And a decade after Emmett’s death, Till-Mobley’s involvement in the movement helped spur passage of landmark federal civil rights and voting rights legislation.
Till-Mobley died of heart failure in Chicago in 2003, ahead of the release of her memoir. All told, the impact of her civil and human rights advocacy has spanned over six decades. In March, after numerous failed attempts in Congress over a 120-year span to make lynching a federal crime, President Joe Biden signed the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act.
The example of Till-Mobley’s sacrifice and persistence continues to fuel Black women like Lee, the YouTube host.
“I think that there was a bridge between fear and faith for her and, in that in-between, she grabbed on to courage, strength, grace and mercy,” Lee said. “That convicted me. She wasn’t waiting on anybody else. She used what was in her hands to fulfill the call on her life.”
Nse Ufot, CEO of the New Georgia Project, a nonpartisan civic engagement organization working to increase voter participation among historically marginalized Georgians, said “Till” is a long overdue “thank you” to Black women who have been inspired by Till-Mobley’s story.
“It’s a love letter to Black mothers and a love letter to Black women — an acknowledgment of the ways in which we show up in community, at work, in defense of Black lives,” Ufot said. “I hope that Black women see themselves in the story, and that their love cups get a little bit poured into it, as we go out and face the world.”
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Associated Press news researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed.
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Aaron Morrison is a New York City-based member of AP’s Race and Ethnicity team. Follow him on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/aaronlmorrison.
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No matter how you look at the numbers, “Halloween Ends” had a good opening weekend.
Touted as the final showdown between Laurie Strode and Michael Myers, the slasher pic earned $41.3 million in ticket sales from 3,901 theaters in North America, according to studio estimates Sunday. It’s the first film to open higher than $40 million since “Nope” debuted in July and it surpassed its production budget, which has been reported to be between $20 and $30 million. Including international showings, it boasts a global total of $58.4 million.
“We are extraordinarily excited that Blumhouse once again delivered an incredible film and another No. 1 opening,” said Jim Orr, Universal’s head of domestic distribution. “Jamie Lee Curtis had audiences across North America engaged and terrified.”
The film also renewed an evergreen debate about day-and-date movie releases and some in Hollywood are wondering whether it could have been even bigger if it hadn’t debuted simultaneously on Peacock, NBC Universal’s streaming service.
Going into the weekend, some analysts had pegged “Halloween Ends” for an opening in the $50 to $55 million range. “Halloween Kills,” the previous installment in the David Gordon Green-directed “Halloween” trilogy,” opened day-and-date last year and still grossed $49 million on opening weekend.
Green’s first “Halloween,” by contrast, debuted to $76.2 million in 2018. But that was pre-pandemic, theatrical release only and the highly anticipated revival of a beloved franchise with good reviews. His subsequent “Halloween” films were more divisive among critics and fans, however. “Kills” had a 39% Rotten Tomatoes score while “Ends” has a 40% and still opened over $40 million.
“The day-and-date model was put to the test again, but I think this is a mandate in favor of the movie theater,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “Audiences had the option to watch it at home but they chose to go to the theater.”
Many studios experimented with day-and-date releases during the second year of the pandemic to varying results, but 2022 has seen most returning to traditional theatrical-first releases — especially for their most valuable brands and franchises.
Still, it triggered a self-proclaimed “rant” from filmmaker Christopher Landon, who tweeted this weekend that he felt his horror film “Freaky” was hurt by its simultaneous release in theaters and streaming in November 2020.
“Stop doing this. Please. It doesn’t work. Studios: stop gambling with filmmakers and their movies to try and prop up your fledgling streaming services,” Landon wrote on Twitter. “I begged the studio not to do this…We got hosed.”
Though there was likely some financial impact on “Halloween Ends,” it’s hard to glean exactly how much money was left on the table with the release. Peacock is notably smaller than many of its streaming competitors, with 13 million paid subscribers reported at the end of July. Studios also rarely release specific streaming data.
“Smile,” meanwhile, has continued to defy horror-movie odds with another strong weekend. Paramount’s original thriller added $12.4 million, bringing its domestic total to $71.2 million after three weeks.
Dergarabedian noted that it’s rare two have two R-rated horror movies at the top of the box office charts.
“The appeal of being scared in a movie theater is time honored,” Dergarabedian said. “Throughout the pandemic, horror movies have grossed over $1 billion, and that’s just domestically.”
Third place for the weekend went to Sony’s “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile,” down 35% from its debut with $7.4 million, while “The Woman King” landed in fourth place with $3.7 million in its fifth weekend, bringing its domestic total to $59.7 million. “Amsterdam” rounded out the top five in weekend two with $2.9 million.
In limited release, United Artists Releasing’s Mamie Till-Mobley film “TILL” got off to a strong start with $240,940 from only 16 locations. Director Chinonye Chukwu’s fact-based account of Emmett Till’s mother’s quest for justice will be expanding in the coming weeks.
“Hats off to producers Barbara Broccoli, Keith Beauchamp, and Whoopi Goldberg who fought to get this movie made for decades,” said Erik Lomis, UAR’s President of Distribution. “This weekend, the film attracted an incredibly diverse, multi-generational audience, playing both ‘smarthouse’ and commercial venues. We’re off to a great start.”
Focus Features’ “Tár,” another buzzy awards contender, also expanded into 36 theaters this weekend — earning another $360,000 — and will continue opening in more markets over the next two weeks.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. “Halloween Ends,” $41.3 million.
2. “Smile,” $12.4 million.
3. “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile,” $7.4 million.
4. “The Woman King,” $3.7 million.
5. “Amsterdam,” $2.9 million.
6. “Don’t Worry Darling,” $2.2 million.
7. “Barbarian,” $1.4 million.
8. “Bros,” $920,000.
9. “Terrifier 2,” $850,000.
10. “Top Gun: Maverick,” $685,000.
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Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr.
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Michael Myers (aka The Shape) and Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode in HALLOWEEN ENDS, directed by David Gordon Green
© Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.
You could practically hear Michael Myers (now around 65 years old) telling Art the Clown and the various baddies (no spoilers) from Barbarian, The Invitation and Smile to get the hell off his lawn. Despite concurrent availability on Peacock, Universal and Blumhouse’s Halloween Ends opened on target with $41.25 million in its debut Fri-Sun frame. I’ve read chatter elsewhere that the Peacock factor hurt the film’s theatrical reception and that somehow this poorly reviewed, willfully divisive franchise-ender (for a franchise that has ended before and everyone knows will eventually be restarted) was supposed to open closer to $55 million. However, recent ‘fine, whatever’ trilogy enders like Fifty Shades Freed, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and The Maze Runner: The Death Cure opened with 80% of their respective predecessor’s opening weekends. Halloween Ends pulled 84% of Halloween Kills’ $49 million domestic launch.
Not every ‘it all ends here’ finale plays like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II or Avengers: Endgame, especially with poor reviews and nothing new to offer. Some successfully sell the ‘end of an era’ hook. The critically acclaimed and unique (due to its real-world template and R rating) Logan parlayed Hugh Jackman’s last ride (uh…) into an $88 million Fri-Sun opening compared to $85 million for X-Men Origins: Wolverine and $53 million for The Wolverine. Right or wrong, if Marvel thought merely offering Deadpool 3 was enough to make it an event, they wouldn’t have coaxed Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine back into the saddle. Even Breaking Dawn part II earned about what the earlier Twilight Saga sequels made ($281-$300 million) in North America, with the same over/under $140 million opening weekend as New Moon and Breaking Dawn part I.
Did Halloween Ends, which promised a finale to the Michael Myers/Laurie Strode saga, lose a few bucks this weekend by being available on Peacock? Well, it was their most-watched movie ever in a two-day period. However, even a 10% bump is $45 million, which is the same ‘hold’ on opening weekend as Jurassic World Dominion ($145 million) compared to Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom ($148 million). That a poorly reviewed threequel to Halloween, following the poorly reviewed Halloween Kills, was never going to somehow approximate the lightning-in-a-bottle arrival of Halloween ($77 million in 2018). Such thinking made up my villain origin story in the days of ‘Pearl Harbor will surely top $100 million over Memorial Day!’ and ‘Book of Shadows will open with $30 million!’ There’s a reason I tend to be the guy saying, “Wait… let’s cool our jets here.”
As with most biggies in the Covid era, what happened happened and couldn’t have happened any other way. The Matrix Resurrections was always going to be a commercial miss, with or without HBO Max. Black Widow was never going to get anywhere near $1 billion worldwide, nor was Tenet or Wonder Woman 1984. David Gordon Green’s Halloween Ends opened with $41.25 million this weekend, which is the third-biggest R-rated opening of the Covid era (since Bad Boys For Life in January of 2020) behind Jordan Peele’s Us ($44 million last July) and Halloween Kills ($49 million in October of 2021). The earlier two Halloween movies (even the 2018 one with great reviews and oodles of free media attention) were painfully frontloaded ($159 million from a $77 million debut and $92 million/$49 million), so we can expect likewise this time too.
We’re still talking about a $33 million R-rated slasher threequel that had already earned $58 million global (including $3.5 million in IMAX) and should reach over/under $80 million domestic and around $115 million global. The Blumhouse trilogy cost about $63 million in total and should crack $500 million globally in the end. This is a franchise that, before 2018, had exactly one (Halloween H20 in 1998) well-liked and well-received (by the masses) installment. All due respect to the various champions of Revenge of Michael Myers, Curse of Michael Myers and Rob Zombie’s Halloween II, but Michael Myers spent even the 1980s taking a pop culture backseat to the likes of Fred Krueger, Jason Vorhees and Chucky. But now Michael Myers is currently the most profitable (budget versus gross) supernatural horror slasher of all, almost entirely due to the Blumhouse trilogy.
This marks the 16th #1 opening for Blumhouse (including Freaky, which did not get a day-and-date Peacock/theater release). Universal has four of this year’s 12 $40 million-plus openings (Halloween Ends, Minions: The Rise of Gru, Jurassic World Dominion and Nope). That’s more than any other studio and sans any Marvel/DC properties. Even with Paramount
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The only other major opener was the platform debut of United Artists’ Till. The well-reviewed and Oscar-buzzy (especially for Danielle Deadwyler) historical drama concerns the infamous murder of Emmitt Till, whose slaying (and much-publicized open-casket funeral) was one of the galvanizing moments of the Civil Rights movement. The Chinonye Chukwu-directed drama earned $240,940 from 16 theaters for a $15,059 per-theater average. It has a 100% fresh and 7.9/10 on Rotten Tomatoes, with 95% among verified users and, uh… 76% among unverified users (cough-review bombing-cough). It will expand next weekend into 150-200 theaters before going wide (alongside Tar) on October 28. Speaking of Tar, Cate Blanchett’s conductor drama expanded to 32 theaters. The Focus Features release will earn $360,000 (+127%) this weekend for a $10,000 per-theater average and $585,000 ten-day total. The Banshees of Inisherin opens in limited release next weekend.
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Chinonye Chukwu didn’t want to make a movie about Black trauma.
The director of the newly released film “Till,” which centers on Mamie Till-Mobley as she fights for justice after the killing of her son, said she wasn’t interested in depicting the moment that Emmett Till was brutally beaten to death in 1955 Mississippi.
“The story is about Mamie and her journey, and so it wasn’t narratively necessary to show the physical violence inflicted upon Emmett,” Chukwu told CNN. “As a Black person, I didn’t want to see it. I didn’t want to recreate it.”
In bringing the story of Till-Mobley to the big screen, Chukwu was intentional about what she chose to show and what she chose to omit. The film doesn’t dramatize the vicious and violent manner in which Emmett was killed, but it does depict his horrifically mangled body – an image that Till-Mobley famously shared with the world and that catalyzed the civil rights movement.
Still, “Till” couldn’t avoid getting swept up into a debate about “Black trauma porn.” Soon after the release of the trailer, some corners of Black Twitter questioned why a movie about Emmett Till was even needed, swiftly characterizing it as the latest Hollywood project to capitalize on Black pain and tragedy. More than a few declared that they wouldn’t be watching.
The filmmakers behind “Till” argue that this classification ignores the care and context that they’ve brought to this story. And they’re urging audiences not to look away.
“Black trauma porn” – much like “disaster porn” or “poverty porn” – generally refers to graphic depictions of violence against Black people that are intended to elicit strong emotional responses. The implication is that these images can be needlessly traumatizing to Black viewers for whom violence is an inescapable fact of life.
Increasingly, the term has been applied not just to videos of police shootings repeatedly shared online, but also to films and TV series. Amazon’s horror anthology series “Them” and the thriller film “Antebellum” are among recent projects criticized for depicting gratuitous violence against Black characters to make a point about the evils of racism. But the “Black trauma porn” label has also been leveled more broadly at historical dramas about slavery or Jim Crow, such as Barry Jenkins’ miniseries “The Underground Railroad” and now, “Till.”
Given that wide umbrella, some experts feel that the term “Black trauma porn” is overused and dismissive, leaving little room for discussion about how creatives might explore traumatic events and experiences on screen thoughtfully.
It’s not hard to understand where the impulse to use that label is coming from, said Kalima Young, an assistant professor at Towson University whose work focuses on representations of race and gender-based trauma in media. Black people are exhausted from constantly being subjected to real-life images of Black pain and death, and seeing that replicated on screen as entertainment can feel exploitative. Still, she said it’s important to separate viral videos from creative works.
“When we use the term ‘trauma porn,’ we conflate the two, and we collapse what’s happening,” Young said. “It takes some of the nuance out of the conversation.”
Janell Hobson, a professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies at the University at Albany, understands why some Black viewers might not have the appetite for “Till.” The two White men accused of Emmett Till’s murder were ultimately acquitted, despite later admitting to the killing, while earlier this year a grand jury declined to indict the White woman who accused him of making advances toward her. Viewers know that there was no justice, and that’s painful.
But though Hobson hasn’t yet seen “Till,” she feels it’s a mistake to call it “Black trauma porn.”
“There’s a difference between criticizing a film that is designed to exploit and to create titillation around images of Black trauma and Black pain versus a drama that is designed to raise awareness around a very troubling part of our history,” she said. “There’s a difference between telling a story of Black trauma and telling a story that is ‘Black trauma porn.’”
What, then, is the line between a story of Black trauma and “Black trauma porn?”
For Young, the distinguishing factor is context. Creators have a responsibility to justify why a particular Black character is being subjected to violence or why that violence is being depicted a certain way, she said – a balance that can be tricky to achieve in genres such as horror, in which violence has long been key. Failing to provide a clear and compelling case for those choices can contribute to a feeling that Young refers to as “empty empathy.”
“Empty empathy,” according to Young, is when viewers are invited to empathize with characters who are experiencing trauma without being provided the space or context to process those visceral feelings. In other words, it’s when trauma is presented as mere spectacle.
To avoid falling into that trap, filmmakers and TV producers have to think creatively about how they tell stories of trauma, Hobson said. That might involve subverting audience expectations as Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” does when a police cruiser pulls up at the end, or telling a familiar story from a different perspective, as “Till” does by highlighting the journey of Mamie Till-Mobley. Strong character development, as well as interspersing moments of humor or rest, can also help soften the blow, Young added.
The team behind “Till” says they’ve worked hard to tell the story of Till-Mobley sensitively. In interviews leading up to its release, Chukwu has emphasized repeatedly that the film contains no physical violence against Black people. It also grounds Till-Mobley’s story in joy and dignity – the opening scene depicts Till-Mobley driving around Chicago with a carefree Emmett singing along to the radio. The ending also closes on a lighter moment between mother and son.
But trauma, too, is integral here, and in giving this story the big screen treatment, the filmmakers are honoring the memory of the real-life Till-Mobley.
Keith Beauchamp, a producer and co-writer of “Till” who was a mentee of Till-Mobley, has a deep connection to this history. He worked closely with Till-Mobley on a documentary about the case. “The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till,” released in 2005, led to the federal government reopening an investigation into the crime. Recently, he helped unearth an unserved arrest warrant from 1955 for the woman whose accusations led to Emmett’s murder.
Beauchamp said “Till” has been 29 years in the making for him personally, and that Till-Mobley herself wanted this story to be told through film. He sees “Till” as a continuation of her fight for justice – not just for Emmett, but for all those who came after him.
“We’re not in the business of re-traumatizing America,” he said. “But this is the story of Emmett Louis Till, and it was that photograph that inspired generations of people and continues to inspire generations of people today.”
When complaints of “trauma porn” are leveled, critics often ask who a particular work is for. Put bluntly, is that depiction of Black trauma intended to appeal to the sympathies of White people?
Young considers that implication a knee-jerk reaction. While skeptics of “Till” might feel that they are plenty familiar with the history of Emmett Till, there are layers to that story that have not been fully unpacked.
“Did they truly understand the context of why the situation occurred?” Young asked. “Have we had enough time to sit in the conversation of why Mamie Till would make that decision to have an open casket?”
Whether someone considers a story about Black trauma too much to endure or whether they consider it imperative to witness is inherently subjective. It’s notable that many of the recent projects deemed to be “Black trauma porn” have been the work of Black creatives – an obvious reminder that Black people are not a monolith.
Hobson also points out that Black creatives have only recently been given the platform to tell their own stories. Viewers, of course, can opt not to watch, but Black creators should be allowed the space to air their wounds, however imperfect their attempts.
At a time when Republican state legislatures are trying to restrict discussions of race and history in schools, Young said it’s crucial that stories such as “Till” not be dismissed.
“In a country right now that is trying so desperately to tamp down on the ghosts that are living under the soil of this country, it’s important that we keep on doing this digging – that we keep on doing the sowing, that we keep on allowing a myriad of voices to tell Black experiences of racial terror and history,” she added.
Beauchamp, for his part, hopes viewers will give “Till” a chance. Till-Mobley was “the mother of the civil rights movement” – an unsung hero who never got her due. In revisiting her story now, he hopes to resurrect her spirit.
“I just want to awaken the sleeping giant of revolutionary change once again that is desperately needed in this country right now.”
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Caitlin Stasey in Paramount Pictures Presents in Association with Paramount Players A Temple Hill Production “SMILE.”
©2022 Paramount Players, a Division of Paramount Pictures
In holdover news for Friday, Paramount’s
PARA
In other ‘horror is good’ news, Barbarian earned $406,000 (-36%) on Friday for a likely $1.33 million (-39%) weekend and $38.9 million domestic cume. It’ll pass $40 million next weekend, a fine achievement for an R-rated, star-free grindhouse original. Bloody Disgusting’s Terrifier 2 earned $340,000 (-5%) while adding theaters in an extended theatrical engagement. We can expect a $810,000 (+1%) weekend and $2.255 million 11-day cume. That’ll do Art. That’ll do.
Lyle takes a bath in Columbia Pictures LYLE, LYLE, CROCODILE. Photo by: Courtesy of Sony Pictures
©2022 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved. **ALL IMAGES ARE PROPERTY OF SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT INC. FOR PROMOTIONAL USE ONLY.
Meanwhile, Columbia and Sony’s delightful Lyle, Lyle Crocodile earned $2 million (-45%) on Friday for a likely $7.6 million (-34%). That gives the $50 million family-friendly comedy a mediocre $23 million ten-day cume. I wish it were doing better, but the IP wasn’t as big a deal as Peter Rabbit, Paddington or Clifford the Big Red Dog.
Sony’s The Woman King earned another $1 million (-24%) on Friday for a $3.91 million (-24%) weekend and $60 million 31-day cume. It should crawl to $70 million in the end, give or take Oscar season attention, with its overseas prospects still mostly unknown. It’s not a blockbuster, but it’s a great film pulling its domestic theatrical weight.
Christian Bale as Burt, Margot Robbie as Valerie, and John David Washington as Harold in 20th Century Studios’ AMSTERDAM. Photo by Merie Weismiller. © 2022 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Merie Weismiller Wallace; SMPSP
Alas, David O. Russell’s Amsterdam crashed hard, earning just $888,000 (-66%) on Friday. We can expect the Christian Bale/Margot Robbie/John David Washington comic thriller to make just $2.85 million (-56%) for a miserable $12 million ten-day total. I liked this one a lot, but audiences no longer automatically show up for star-packed non-franchise films unless almost everything (reviews, high concept, ensemble cast, marquee director, promise of escapism) goes right.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s Don’t Worry Darling earned $740,000 (-36%) on Friday for a likely $2.29 million (-35%) weekend and $42.5 million 24-day total. Again, it’s not a blockbuster or a franchise starter, but the $35 million Olivia Wilde-directed thriller will make money. Universal’s Bros earned $290,000 (-57%) on Friday for a $900,000 (-58%) weekend and poor $10.9 million 17-day total.
Paramount and Skydance’s Top Gun: Maverick remained in the top ten with a $730,000 (-9%) weekend and a bonkers $716 million cume. By tomorrow, the Tom Cruise legacy sequel will have sold more tickets in North America than Black Panther. This will be its 21st consecutive weekend in the top ten, the first film to do so since Titanic in 1997 and Forrest Gump in 1994. I imagine this will be its last such weekend (at least consecutively), but we’ll see.
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A version of this story appeared in Pop Life Chronicles, CNN’s weekly entertainment newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.
CNN
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When fall is in full swing, it’s all about sports at my house.
Like clockwork, my husband invariably takes control of the television with a hearty “You know what time it is!”
Sundays are for college football and Mondays pro football — so I’m freed up to hunker down with one of our other TVs and enjoy some uninterrupted viewing time of my own.
But thanks to John Stamos, I’m now more of a basketball fan, which leads us into what to watch this week.
‘Big Shot’ Season 2
John Stamos is back as the coach of a high school basketball team at an elite girls private school.
His character is still temperamental, but in the show’s second season his team is now in a different division and — *gasp* — boys have arrived at Westbrook.
Stamos gets an assist in this sports dramedy from costars Yvette Nicole Brown and Jessalyn Gilsig, among others; it’s exactly what you would expect from a series cocreated by David E. Kelley.
“Big Shot” is streaming on Disney+.
‘The Watcher’
Ryan Murphy lives to creep us out.
This time, it’s with “The Watcher,” which is based on a terrifying true story: A family buys their dream house only to discover they’re being stalked by someone obsessed with the home — and them.
In real life, the family never even fully moved in after being terrorized by threatening letters and ended up selling the property at a loss in 2019, five years after they had purchased it.
But you won’t have to wait that long to watch the dramatized version of their story, because “The Watcher” is streaming now on Netflix.
‘Halloween Ends’
Let’s continue with the scary stuff as this is Halloween month, of course.
Poor Laurie Strode. The iconic “final girl” played by Jamie Lee Curtis has been trying to stay out of serial killer Michael Myers’ clutches for decades in the “Halloween” movie franchise.
But as the new film’s title suggests, Curtis is insistent this will be her character’s last go-around with the masked murderer.
“I need to now cut her loose and let her live in the minds and hearts of the fans that have supported her,” Curtis told Entertainment Weekly.
So does that mean Michael finally kills off Laurie? “Halloween Ends” is now streaming on Peacock — and in movie theaters.
In a new true crime podcast series, reality star/entrepreneur/criminal justice advocate Kim Kardashian highlights Kevin Keith’s 1994 conviction on triple homicide charges in Ohio, as well as the tireless work he and his family have since undertaken to prove his innocence.
“Sharing people’s stories that are not just on a rap sheet will help people get comfortable and understand where someone has come from,” Kardashian told The Hollywood Reporter. “Usually, you don’t hear the other side.”
Love her or hate her, Kardashian is making use of her enormous platform to bring attention to those she believes have suffered injustices.
“Kim Kardashian’s The System: The Case of Kevin Keith” is streaming on Spotify.
Speaking of platforms, “American Idol” judge Katy Perry is using hers to help people rediscover the magic of the late Elizabeth Taylor with podcast “Elizabeth the First,” which explores the movie star as the original influencer.
“I’m inspired by her bold activism, her constant boss moves in business, and through it all, an unapologetic way of loving — all things I try to live in my own life,” Perry said in a statement.
Taylor, who died at 79 in 2011, is a forever icon, and I love seeing her being celebrated this way.
“Elizabeth the First” is streaming on Apple.
By now, you’ve probably heard the story of comedian Ariel Elias getting a beer can lobbed at her while performing onstage. What played out is a reminder that, despite how uncivil our society has become, it’s all about how you handle what life throws your way.
Elias was doing stand-up recently at Uncle Vinnie’s Comedy Club in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey, when an audience member began grilling her on whether she had voted for President Joe Biden.
“I wasn’t talking about politics,” Elias told CNN. “It just felt like she was looking for a fight.”
The heckler was tossed out of the club, but the man who was seated next to her threw a beer can at Elias. It landed hard on a wall near to where she was performing.
Rather than explode or turn the other cheek, Elias just took a sip of the remaining brew. That reaction, and determination to finish her set, has won her praise from all over.
Let me first preface what I am about to say by stating I am a longtime admirer of Madonna.
The singer had quite a few people talking this week when she shared a TikTok video that had some thinking she was coming out as gay.
Others complained that the star, who has always been a huge supporter of LGBTQ rights, was “queer-baiting,” alongside broader criticism about Madonna taking to TikTok at her age.
Madonna is not a fan of people pointing out her age (see her taking the New York Times Magazine to task in 2019), and the entertainment industry is notorious for ageism.
Yet it can be difficult for older celebrities to strike a tone on social media that feels appropriate. Some of them, like Dionne Warwick on Twitter, have mastered it — others can come across as cringe.
Not that Madonna has to fade away — I doubt she ever could — but she’ll likely always be judged by some, as her determination to live life on her own terms is ageless.
What did you like about today’s newsletter? What did we miss? Pop in to poplife@cnn.com and say hello!
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LOS ANGELES — Mel Gibson can testify about what he learned from one of Harvey Weinstein’s accusers, a judge ruled Friday in the rape and sexual assault trial of the former movie mogul.
The 66-year-old actor and director was one of many witnesses, and by far the best known, whose identities were revealed in Los Angeles Superior Court. The judge and attorneys had taken a break from jury selection for motions on what evidence will be allowed at the trial, and who can testify. The witness list for the trial is sealed.
Judge Lisa B. Lench ruled that Gibson can testify in support of his masseuse and friend, who will be known as Jane Doe #3 at the trial. Weinstein is accused of committing sexual battery by restraint against the woman, one of 11 rape and sexual assault counts in the trial against the 70-year-old.
Prosecutors said that after getting a massage from the woman at a California hotel in Beverly Hills in May of 2010, a naked Weinstein followed her into the bathroom and masturbated. Weinstein has pleaded not guilty, and denied any non-consensual sexual activity.
Weinstein’s attorneys argued against allowing Gibson to testify, saying that what he learned from the woman while getting a massage from her does not constitute a “fresh complaint” by the woman under the law by which Gibson would take the stand. A “fresh complaint” under California law allows the introduction of evidence of sexual assault or another crime if the victim reported it to someone else voluntarily and relatively promptly after it happened.
Prosecutors said that when Gibson brought up Weinstein’s name by chance, the woman had a traumatic response and Gibson understood from her that she had been sexually assaulted. Gibson did not remember the timing of the exchange, but the prosecution will use another witness, Allison Weiner, who remembers speaking to both Gibson and the woman in 2015.
Judge Lench said Gibson’s testimony will depend on how the accuser describes the exchange with him when she takes the stand, and she may choose to rule against it at that time.
Weinstein attorney Mark Werksman then argued that if Gibson does take the stand, the defense should be allowed to cross-examine him about widely publicized antisemitic remarks Gibson made during an arrest in 2006, and about racist statements to a girlfriend that were recorded and publicized in 2010.
Lench said a wider discussion of Gibson’s racism was not relevant to the trial, but she would allow questioning of whether he had a personal bias and animus toward Weinstein.
Werksman argued that Gibson had such a bias both because Weinstein is Jewish, and because Weinstein published a book that criticized the depiction of Jews in the Gibson-directed 2004 film, “The Passion of the Christ.”
“Any evidence of Mr. Gibson’s racism or antisemitism would give rise to a bias against my client, who challenged him,” Werksman said.
The lawyer briefly, and mistakenly, said he thought the movie won a best picture Academy Award, but Weinstein, whose films once dominated the Oscars, shook his head as he sat at the defense table.
“Sorry, my client would know better than I would,” Werksman said. “But it was an award-winning movie.”
The defense also argued that Gibson was trying to whitewash his image by focusing on Weinstein’s wrongdoing and asserting himself as a champion of the #MeToo movement.
The prosecution argued that Gibson had made no such suggestions about himself, and that at the time of the conversation with his masseuse he said he was discussing getting into a business deal with Weinstein, showing there was no such bias.
Deputy District Attorney Marlene Martinez called Gibson’s past comments “despicable,” but said they had no relevance for the narrow purposes he would be called to the stand for.
Gibson’s testimony raises the prospect of two of Hollywood’s once most powerful men, who have undergone public downfalls, facing each other in court.
An email seeking comment from a representative for Gibson was not immediately returned.
In one of several similar rulings Friday, Lench also found that “Melrose Place” actor Daphne Zuniga could testify in a similar capacity for a woman known at the trial as Jane Doe #4, whom Weinstein is accused of raping in 2004 or 2005.
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused.
Weinstein is already serving a 23-year sentence for a 2020 conviction for rape and sexual assault in New York. The state’s highest court has agreed to hear his appeal in that case.
He was subsequently brought to Los Angeles for a trial that began Monday, five years after women’s stories about him gave massive momentum to the #MeToo movement.
Friday’s arguments came a day after the premiere of the film “She Said,” which tells the story of the work of the two New York Times reporters whose stories brought Weinstein down.
Weinstein’s attorneys previously sought to have the Los Angeles trial delayed because publicity from the film might taint the jury pool, but the judge denied their motion.
The trial is expected to last eight weeks. The judge and attorneys will return to the jury selection process on Monday morning, and opening statements are expected to begin on Oct. 24.
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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: twitter.com/andyjamesdalton
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CNN
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Halloween entertainment is serving major nostalgia this year, with some of our favorite spooky classics being remade, or better yet, getting a sequel.
Check out these holiday classics that will certainly leave you a little frightened.
The Sanderson Sisters are back! “Hocus Pocus 2” brings back Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy as your favorite witches to get you ready for Halloween. The original film came out in 1993 and immediately became a family classic set.
The movie is streaming on Disney+.
“Tell me your name, I’ll tell you mine.” Let’s take it back to one of the best scary movies ever made. It’s a deadly game and one masked man is wreaking havoc all over town. The film, made in 1996, stars Drew Barrymore, David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and Rose McGowan.
You can stream “Scream” on Paramount Plus.
Forty-four years and 13 movies later, “Halloween Ends” is back to give you a fright. It is said to be the end of this latest trilogy in the franchise, featuring Jamie Lee Curtis, who starred in the original “Halloween” in 1978. The movie tells the story of a man named Michael Myers who escapes an insane asylum. He’s on the hunt to kill his sister, played by Curtis, and brutally murders everyone in his path.
The movie is in theaters Friday.
Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!!! Forget the scaries and insert some giggles. “Beetlejuice” has been a fan favorite since its debut in 1988. Starring Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice, it tells the story of a dead couple who haunt their house and the new people living in it. The movies also stars Alec Baldwin, Winona Ryder and Geena Davis.
“Beetlejuice” is streaming on HBO Max.
“Hellraiser” is said to be a “reimagining” of Clive Barker’s 1987 horror film. CNN’s film critic, Brian Lowry says in his review that the film tells the story of a young woman, Riley (Odessa A’zion of Netflix’s “Grand Army”), who is “struggling with addiction and winds up stealing from the wrong storage facility, thrusting her and those around her (including her brother) into peril and creating incentive for her to decipher what might be happening.”
The film is streaming on Hulu.
Who doesn’t love a Brad Pitt movie?! Throw in Tom Cruise, Kirsten Dunst, Christian Slater, some vampires and you’ve got yourself a Halloween cult classic. Adapted from Anne Rice’s novel, it tells the story of how two vampires, played by Pitt and Cruise, turn Dunst’s character into a vampire.
It received Oscar nominations and has lived on to haunt movie watchers ever since.
The film is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
In “Practical Magic,” Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman play two sisters who have always known they were different because they are witches. Their aunts raised them and taught them magic but they grow up to learn that they are cursed. Every man they fall in love with ends up dying a tragic death. They must use their powers to try and break this curse once and for all and find their one true love.
It is streaming on HBO Max.
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CNN
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Stars from the “Harry Potter” universe are paying tribute to Hogwart’s resident gentle half-giant, Robbie Coltrane, who died on Friday.
In a statement provided to CNN by a representative, Daniel Radcliffe called Coltrane, 72 – who played Hagrid in the “Harry Potter” film franchise – “one of the funniest people I’ve met” and recalled how the actor “used to keep us laughing constantly as kids on the set.”
“I’ve especially fond memories of him keeping our spirits up on ‘Prisoner of Azkaban,’ when we were all hiding from the torrential rain for hours in Hagrid’s hut and he was telling stories and cracking jokes to keep morale up,” Radcliffe said, making reference to the third film. “I feel incredibly lucky that I got to meet and work with him and very sad that he’s passed. He was an incredible actor and a lovely man.”
Emma Watson, who played Hermione Granger in the franchise, also honored her late costar on Friday in an Instagram Story.
“Robbie was the most fun uncle I’ve ever had,” she wrote, underneath a photo of the pair. “His talent was so immense it made sense he played a giant – he could fill ANY space with his brilliance,” she later added. “Robbie, if I ever get to be so kind as you were to me on a film set I promise I’ll do it in your name and memory,” Watson continued, going on to say how Coltrane “made us a family.”
Tom Felton, who famously portrayed Draco Malfoy in the “Harry Potter” movies, also posted to Instagram in honor of Coltrane, writing on Friday, “One of my fondest memories of filming Harry Potter was a night shoot on the first film in the forbidden forest. I was 12. Robbie cared & looked after everyone around of him. Effortlessly. And made them laugh. Effortlessly. He was a big friendly giant on screen but even more so In real life.”
Coltrane, too, shared fond memories of working with the film’s young stars in a recent HBO Max special, “Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts.” (CNN and HBO are both part of Warner Bros. Discovery.)
“Watching them grow up was kind of like watching your own kids growing up, you know? Because you were sort of protecting them,” he said. “I was always astonished at how fearless they were.”
“Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling wrote on Twitter: “I’ll never know anyone remotely like Robbie again. He was an incredible talent, a complete one off, and I was beyond fortunate to know him, work with him and laugh my head off with him. I send my love and deepest condolences to his family, above all his children.”
And Warwick Davis, who played Professor Filius Flitwick and the goblin Griphook in the films, remembered Coltrane as someone who was “always jovial” and “brought warmth, light and laughter to any set he walked on to.”
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NEW YORK — Five years after a pair of exposés revealed Harvey Weinstein’s long trail of sexual abuse of women, “She Said,” a film that dramatizes the dogged fight to uncover years of allegations against the movie mogul, premiered Thursday at the New York Film Festival.
The film stars Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan as New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, who helped uncover the many allegations against Weinstein. When news of their impending report was first leaked by Variety, Weinstein at the time commented: “The story sounds so good, I want to buy the movie rights.”
Instead, the movie that would become “She Said” was adapted from Twohey and Kantor’s 2019 book about the investigation. It unspooled Thursday at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, with numerous women who came forward to tell their story in attendance, including Ashley Judd. Weinstein, meanwhile, is currently being tried in Los Angeles for 11 counts of rape and sexual assault. He has pled not guilty.
The 70-year-old Weinstein is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2020 for committing a criminal sexual act and third-degree rape.
One of the loudest of the film’s numerous standing ovations was for Judd, whose on-the-record account led The Times’ first report and whose bravery emboldened many others to speak out. Other women who came forward were also in the audience. Judd plays herself in the film.
“I just want to remember when I was speaking to my mother about all this, she said, ‘Oh, you go get ’em, honey,” Judd said in an on-stage conversation following the film, recalling that her father was with her after her 1996 meeting with Weinstein at the Peninsula Beverly Hills hotel. “When I came down from the hotel room, he knew something devastating had just happened to me by the look on my face.”
“It was very validating that someone finally wanted to listen and do something about it,” Judd added. “The film was the next step in that.”
That “She Said” was premiering in New York at a festival Weinstein once frequented made the evening particularly poignant. Eugene Hernandez, executive director of the festival, noted that “it’s a room Harvey Weinstein has been in.”
The movie, too, has been a subject in Weinstein’s current trial. During pre-trial hearings, Weinstein’s attorneys requested that the trial be delayed because of the release of “She Said,” arguing that it could influence jurors. Universal Pictures will open “She Said” in theaters Nov. 18. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa Lench rejected the motion.
But the array of women on stage — including the stars, the Times reporters, director Maria Schrader and screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz — made a powerful statement. “She Said” follows the ups and downs of Kantor and Twohey’s persistent investigation, battling against a decades-old wall-of-silence, a litany of NDAs and Weinstein’s own belligerent responses.
“The number of people who shared information with us was relatively small, and yet their impact was so large,” Kantor. said “We hope this film helps people remember that these personal stories really can make an enormous difference.”
The Times’ reporting on Weinstein, along with that of The New Yorker, was the catalyst not just for Weinstein’s dramatic downfall but the rapid expansion of the #MeToo movement begun by activist Tarana Burke that would spread throughout Hollywood and many other industries.
“She Said” follows in the tradition of investigative journalism films like “All the President’s Men” and “Spotlight,” with the notable difference that its protagonists are women balancing their 24/7 work lives with their young families. The film takes care to show the reporters as hard-working professionals not so unlike the young, ambitious women Weinstein preyed on.
Kazan took a moment to reflect on what’s changed in Hollywood in the five years since. There are now intimacy coordinators on set for sex scenes and a more open conversation about gender imbalance. But, she said, “there’s so much change left to be effected.”
“Anybody reading the newspaper headlines since let’s just say the beginning of May would know that we’re still living in an oppressive patriarchy,” said Kazan. “That’s not special to our industry.”
Judd added that, thanks to SAG-Aftra agreements, auditions no longer happen in hotel rooms. But she also made the point that something deeper has changed within women.
“I have reframed the experiences that I have had to understand that they were, in fact, harassment and assault, when I had previously minimized them,” Judd said. “I think that the individual transformation a lot of us have had as a result of what Tarana started and as a result of this reporting, has allowed women’s consciousness to transform and to set boundaries and reclaim autonomy and say, ‘This is the up with which I will not put. This is the hill on which I’m willing to die.’ ”
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Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP
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CNN
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Almost 30 years after the groundbreaking Asian American film “The Joy Luck Club” released, plans are being made for a new movie that will catch up with the characters from the original.
According to Deadline, a sequel is in development with Oscar-winning screenwriter Ron Bass and author Amy Tan that will continue the story based on her bestselling novel of the same name.
The 1993 film starred Rosalind Chao, Lisa Lu, Tamlyn Tomita, and Ming-Na Wen. It told the multi-generational tale of a group of Chinese mothers and their Chinese American daughters.
The film’s success is credited for helping pave the way for other Asian and Asian American projects, including Margaret Cho’s 1994 sitcom “All-American Girl” and later, the 2018 film “Crazy Rich Asians.”
Members of the original “Joy Luck Club” cast are reportedly in negotiations to return for the sequel, which will focus on the mothers in the original now being grandmothers and their daughters being mothers.
A director has yet to be announced for the new film.
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CNN
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Angela Lansbury, who enjoyed an eclectic, award-winning movie and stage career in addition to becoming America’s favorite TV sleuth in “Murder, She Wrote,” has died, according to a statement from her family provided to NBC, whose parent company produced the long-running series. She was 96.
“The children of Dame Angela Lansbury are sad to announce that their mother died peacefully in her sleep at home in Los Angeles at 1:30 AM today, Tuesday, October 11, 2022, just five days shy of her 97th birthday,” her family said in a statement.
CNN has contacted representatives of Lansbury for comment.
Not yet 20 years old, Lansbury garnered her first Oscar nomination for her movie debut, “Gaslight,” in 1944. Her second came the next year for “The Portrait of Dorian Gray,” and again in 1962 as the mother who betrays her son and her country in “The Manchurian Candidate.” (She received Golden Globes for the latter two films.)
The actress accepted an honorary Oscar in 2013, to go with the five Tony Awards she collected over a 40-plus-year span – beginning with “Mame” in 1966, and finally for a revival of the Noel Coward play “Blithe Spirit” in 2009. Lansbury also amassed 11 Emmy nominations for her role as Jessica Fletcher in “Murder, She Wrote,” but never won.
Lansbury went from ingenue to playing more middle-aged roles practically overnight. She was just 37, for example, when she portrayed Laurence Harvey’s conniving mother in “Manchurian Candidate,” even though her co-star was just two years younger than her.
Born in London, her mother, Moyna MacGill, was an actress, and father Edward Lansbury a politician. He died when she was just nine years old, and not long after the onset of World War II the family moved to the US in 1940, settling in New York.
Lansbury studied drama before moving at her mother’s urging to Los Angeles, where she briefly worked in a department store until landing her breakthrough role as the young maid in “Gaslight,” starring Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer.
Other films included “National Velvet” (playing Elizabeth Taylor’s sister), “The Harvey Girls,” “The Three Musketeers,” the Danny Kaye comedy “The Court Jester” and the Elvis Presley vehicle “Blue Hawaii.”
Lansbury made her Broadway debut in 1957, later starring in iconic Tony-winning roles in “Mame,” “Gypsy” and “Sweeney Todd.”
Generations of children revered Lansbury for her Disney roles, first in the 1971 movie musical “Bedknobs and Broomsticks,” and later as the voice of Mrs. Potts in the 1991 Oscar-nominated animated film “Beauty and the Beast.” She also played a small role in the 2018 sequel “Mary Poppins Returns.”
“Oddly enough, children recognize my voice,” she told The Huffington Post in 2012. “They’ll hear me and say, ‘Mom, that’s Mrs. Potts!’”
After a short-lived marriage to actor Richard Cromwell, Lansbury wed British actor Peter Shaw in 1949. They stayed together until his death in 2003 and had two children, Anthony – who directed many episodes of “Murder, She Wrote” – and Deirdre. Shaw eventually became her manager, and was instrumental in the deal that made them the producers of the series which premiered in 1984.
Lansbury achieved her greatest fame in her 60s for her starring role in “Murder, She Wrote” as a crime-solving mystery writer. Of all her roles, Lansbury said Jessica Fletcher was most like her.
”I had a lot of say in it, and I didn’t want the character to be quirky,” she told The New York Times in 2009. ”I wanted her to be real. I didn’t want to have to put on any kind of veneer for 24 hours a day, which is what a television schedule sometimes feels like.”
Despite “Murder, She Wrote’s” success, the audience skewed older, and CBS irritated Lansbury by moving the series to Thursday night opposite NBC’s “Friends” in 1995, in what turned out to be the mystery’s final season.
“I’m shattered,” Lansbury told the Los Angeles Times, adding, “I really feel angry for all the people who watched us” on Sunday, where the show had consistently delivered big ratings following “60 Minutes.”
After the series ended, Lansbury starred in several “Murder, She Wrote” TV movies. She continued to work into her 80s and 90s, including a 2017 miniseries version of “Little Women” and starring in a 2015 Great Performances production of “Driving Miss Daisy,” opposite James Earl Jones.
“I love this industry and I love being in it,” Lansbury said in a 1998 interview with the Archives of American Television, adding in regard to the “Murder” audience, “They loved it, and they were loyal.”
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CNN
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Jennifer Siebel Newsom, an award-winning filmmaker and wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, is set to testify in the sexual assault trial of disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein in Los Angeles, her attorneys told CNN Monday.
“Like many other women, my client was sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein at a purported business meeting that turned out to be a trap,” said Beth Fegan, one of Newsom’s attorneys.
“She intends to testify at his trial to seek some measure of justice for survivors and as part of her life’s work to improve the lives of women,” Fegan said.
Weinstein, 70, is set to go on trial again, more than two years after he was convicted of first-degree criminal sexual act and third-degree rape charges in New York and sentenced to 23 years in prison.
After he was found guilty in New York, the once-powerful movie mogul was moved to Los Angeles, where he’s been serving his prison sentence.
In Los Angeles, Weinstein faces multiple sexual assault charges that he has pleaded not guilty to last year, including four counts of rape, four counts of forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by force and sexual battery by restraint in incidents dating from 2004 to 2013.
Jury selection for Weinstein’s trial began Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Newsom will likely testify “on or around November 8” but this could change as the schedule is fluid, attorney Mark Firmani said.
As the trial in Los Angeles is set to get underway, Weinstein has maintained his innocence and denied all allegations against him. New York’s highest court in August agreed to hear his appeal challenging his 2020 conviction on sex crime charges.
The allegations against Weinstein helped fuel the global #MeToo movement, encouraging women around the globe to speak out against sexual abuse.
Just a day after The New York Times published its bombshell report on Weinstein in October 2017, Newsom wrote an opinion editorial for the Huffington Post where she shared that she had an experience very similar to the allegations reported by the Times.
“I was naive, new to the industry, and didn’t know how to deal with his aggressive advances ― work invitations with a friend late-night at The Toronto Film Festival, and later an invitation to meet with him about a role in The Peninsula Hotel, where staff were present and then all of a sudden disappeared like clockwork, leaving me alone with this extremely powerful and intimidating Hollywood legend,” Newsom wrote.
Weinstein spokesman Juda Engelmayer declined to comment on Newsom’s allegation.
Siebel Newsom is a Stanford University graduate who has written, directed and produced several documentaries, including “Miss Representation,” “The Mask You Live In” and “The Great American Lie.” During her time as California’s First Partner, Siebel Newsom has advocated for working mothers and launched initiatives focused on closing the pay gap, among other efforts, and has been involved in several social activism campaigns.
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You are reading this for the wrong reason. Thus begins Volume Three of the legendary four-part work The Hyperion Cantos, by word wizard Dan Simmons. I quote this line at the outset to emphasize that I have nothing against Bradley Cooper. In fact, I’m a fan who admires him for his guts as an actor and director. I am writing because I believe that a film (or series of films) is the wrong medium for the Cantos and would reduce and constrain our imaginative opportunity. I believe it is a work that
The four volumes of the Hyperion Cantos
should be left alone as one for the ages to be read (and perhaps listened to, more about which shortly). In a larger sense, my objection invites us to reconsider the question of how medium and story should best fit together.
Allow me to expand. For those of you who don’t know, the Hyperion Cantos is a four-volume saga equal in scope, moral force and sheer entertainment value to The Lord of the Rings. If you haven’t read it, stop and order it right away. It is a virtuoso mashup of hard science fiction, mythology, a profound love story, thoughts about the future of the human/AI relationship, organized religion and more. It is a philosophical tract on what it means to be human, a deep exploration of power and politics, an almost lyrical future military history, a meditation on leadership, art, poetry and more. You get the idea.
I have now read the four volumes from cover to cover twice and keep coming back to their expansive universe with fresh curiosity and unanswered questions. Not all of their meanings can be easily digested in a single reading.
Recently I added listening to reading via the Audible versions of the Cantos. I was mesmerized by the superb artistry of narrator Victor Bevine and his ability to bring complicated characters to life. In reading, one is tempted to rush ahead, to find out what happens next. In contrast, my spoken word experience was more conducive to savoring and reflecting because it slowed down the experience and enabled a different pace of digestion. Most importantly, hearing the voices of the characters allowed room for my imagination while luxuriating in the primal experience of being read to.
Thus I got worried when I heard rumblings of an effort to develop the Cantos into a film(s) at Warner Brothers, driven by no less a member of Hollywood royalty than Bradley Cooper. Having been around the film business and produced a couple of feature films myself, I can certainly appreciate how producers go into heat when they sense a Dune-like epic that can ring the cash registers with multiple sequels, prequels, and spinoffs (not to mention the merch).
But I say don’t do it. Making this film will reduce the impact of this timeless narrative and its characters. Film condenses in a way that can severely constrain the imagination. Let’s first do a bit of simple math, The four books weigh in at 2046 pages. Assuming an average reading pace of a page a minute, we’re talking 34.1 hours of reading. And the Audible versions clock in at a whopping 95 hours! Lots of room for the imagination to take flight. To reflect, digest, learn, weep, rejoice. In contrast, a film occupies somewhere between two and three hours. Draw your own conclusions.
There are times when I want a gifted film-maker to take my imagination along for a ride, regardless of the source material. I’m glad that I read The Lord of the Rings
Peter Jackson who directed the Lord of the Rings trilogy
before seeing the movies, but Peter Jackson’s version stands out as faithful to this beloved work. The current Rings of Power on the other hand travels a lesser road IMHO, sacrificing depth for plot points. And that’s where the risk lies.
Frankly, I don’t want to see the Cantos brought to earth by the latest clever casting decisions involving flavor-of-the-month actors. I don’t want to see Hollywood’s version of massive space battles. I don’t want to see the subtleties of human/AI interaction reduced to digital FX. Film is literally reductive; it’s someone else’s imagination on the screen for you to experience. For example, I read Dune when it first came out. Now I
Oscar Isaac representing the film “Dune” at the 78th Venice Film Festival
see Oscar Isaac whenever I reflect on the travails of Duke Leto, and that’s OK for me. When the film craft is good, all is forgiven. When it is mediocre (or the budgets are limited), the imagination suffers.
Leave me alone, Bradley Cooper. This project is too big to have any chance of being faithful to the original. Let me hang out in the Cantos in my own way, warmed by the words of Dan Simmons who ought to someday get a Nobel Prize for narrative imagination. Let me savor characters who have become my friends through Victor Bevine’s narration. Leave me alone with my own imagination to bring the words – written and spoken – to life. I don’t need someone else’s imagination to hitch a ride to this galaxy. Leave me alone. Don’t disempower my imagination. Don’t take away my ability to dream.
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John Kao, Contributor
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NEW YORK — David O. Russell’s star-studded 1930s mystery “Amsterdam” flopped and the children’s book adaptation “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” debuted softly, allowing the horror thriller “Smile” to repeat atop the box office in U.S. and Canada theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Neither new release caught fire with moviegoers but the disappointment was most acute for “Amsterdam,” a poorly reviewed $80 million screwball romp starring Christian Bale, Margot Robbie and John David Washington. The 20th Century Studios production, co-funded by New Regency and released by the Walt Disney Co., opened with just $6.5 million — a stinging rebuke for the decorated filmmaker of “Silver Linings Playbook” whose splashy ensemble also includes Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy and Taylor Swift.
Sony Pictures’ “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile,” a musical based on Bernard Waber’s children’s book featuring Shawn Mendes as the voice of a computer-generated reptile, fared better, collecting $11.5 million in ticket sales. But that still was a relatively modest result, especially for the first major family movie to land in theaters since the summer. The film, which cost $50 million to make, could benefit from children being out of school for Monday’s Columbus Day and little kid-movie competition this month.
A week after topping the charts with a $22-million launch, Paramount Pictures’ “Smile” remained No. 1 with $17.6 million at the box office — an impressive second week for the modestly budget horror flick. Horror films usually fall steeply in their second week of release but “Smile,” a creepy thriller about trauma and evil spirits, dropped just 22%. To keep the momentum, Paramount on Sunday announced a weeklong series of promotions, including discounted tickets and a “Smile” NFT giveaway for some ticket-buyers on Thursday.
The best news for Hollywood over the weekend was a sign that adult audiences, after two pandemic-plagued seasons, may be eager to come out for the fall’s top awards contenders. Todd Field’s “Tár,” starring Cate Blanchett as a world-renown conductor, debuted with $160,000 in four New York and Los Angeles theaters, good for a stellar $40,000 per-theater average. After its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Field’s first film since 2006’s “Little Children” has drawn raves from critics and Oscar nomination predictions for Blanchett.
The promising start will encourage a long line of awards contenders coming in the next few weeks, including MGM’s Emmett Till drama “Till,” MUBI’s Park Chan-wook thriller “Decision to Leave” and Searchlight Pictures’ “The Banshees of Inisherin,” by writer-director Martin McDonagh.
At the same time, a prolonged sluggish period in theaters may be coming to a close. Not since “Bullet Train” opened in early August has a film cleared $23 million, a downturn owed in part to a light release schedule. But next week, Universal Pictures debuts “Halloween Ends” both in theaters and on Peacock. The following weekend sees the release of Warner Bros.’ “Black Adam,” with Dwayne Johnson.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. “Smile,” $17.6 million.
2. “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile,” $11.5 million.
3. “Amsterdam,” $6.5 million.
4. “The Woman King,” $5.3 million.
5. “Don’t Worry Darling,” $3.5 million.
6. “Avatar,” $2.6 million.
7. “Barbarian,” $2.2 million.
8. “Bros,” $2.2 million.
9. “Ponniyin Selvan Part One,” $910,000.
10. “Terrifier 2,” $825,000.
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Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP
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