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Remember when everyone thought the world was going to end on January 1, 2000? Well, what if it actually did? That’s the premise behind A24’s dial-up disaster comedy Y2K, headed to theaters on December 6. Preview the apocalyptic mayhem with the brand new trailer below.

The film takes place on the last night of 1999. “Two high school juniors crash a New Year’s Eve party, only to find themselves fighting for their lives in this dial-up disaster comedy.”

Jaeden Martell (It, Mr. Harrigan’s Phone) and Julian Dennison (Deadpool 2) star as the high school friends. Y2K also stars Rachel Zegler (West Side Story), Lachlan Watson (“Chucky,” “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”), Mason Gooding (Scream 2022, Scream VI), The Kid Laroi, Tim Heidecker (Us), Eduardo Franco (“Stranger Things”), Miles Robbins (Daniel Isn’t Real, Halloween 2018), Alicia Silverstone (The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Lodge), Fred Hechinger (Fear Street), Daniel Zolghadri (Funny Pages) and Fred Durst.

At only 32 years old, Barry Keoghan already has an impressive slate of filmmakers under his belt, from Christopher Nolan and Yorgos Lanthimos to Martin McDonagh and Emerald Fennell. With Mubi’s “Bird,” which debuted in theaters over the weekend, Andrea Arnold is the latest Oscar-winning director to pair with the Oscar-nominated actor.

“I’ve always had filmmakers really care about me and colleagues really care about me, and she’s another one so much with love for me as a human, for an actor,” Keoghan told IndieWire. “She wants to look out for me and look after everyone, but like, I just feel I connect to that a lot. With not having those figures in my life and when someone steps in to do that, I really lean into it.”

“So with that, you’re going to bring forward like an access of me being able to get to certain...

Director Andrea Arnold (Big Little Lies, American Honey) reimagined her upcoming feature film Bird for Fontaines D.C.’s “Bug” video. The film — and now music video — stars Barry Keoghan.

Arnold’s Bird, out this Friday, is a coming-of-age film where Keoghan plays a character named Bug who is a troubled single dad to a 12-year-old daughter, played by newcomer Nykiya Adams. Arnold adapted scenes from the film for the video. This is Keoghan’s second music video appearance this year, having previously starred in girlfriend Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please” video.

From The Exorcist director William Friedkin, Bug will infect 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray on November 26 via Kino Lorber.

The 2006 psychological horror film has been newly restored in 4K from the original camera negative with Dolby Vision/Hdr.

Ashley Judd, Michael Shannon, Lynn Collins, Brían F. O’Byrne, and Harry Connick Jr. star.

Tracy Letts (August: Osage County) penned the script, based on his 1996 play of the same name.

The disc features reversible artwork. Archival Special Features include:

Disc 1 – 4K Uhd:

Audio Commentary by Director William Friedkin

Disc 2 – Blu-ray:

Audio Commentary by Director William Friedkin Discussion with William Friedkin Bug: An Introduction Theatrical Trailer

In the film, “At a rundown desert motel, Agnes (Ashley Judd) begins a tentative relationship with a newcomer named Peter (Michael Shannon). He has a strange charisma, one that offers fearful and unstable Agnes a flicker of hope. When Peter reveals that the military deliberately infected him...

7 Little Johnstons fans are always eager for the latest updates from Liz Johnston and her daughter, Leighton Bolden. Based on the most recent updates making the rounds, Leighton reached a major milestone recently. So, what happened with this situation?

7 Little Johnstons: Fans Can’t Get Enough Of Baby Leighton Bolden Updates

From the moment Liz Johnston started sharing Leighton Bolden updates with her followers, viewers could not seem to get enough of the new family member. Long before baby Leighton made her official debut at the end of 7 Little Johnstons Season 14, viewers were already eating up every update Liz shared, including all of the latest milestones to boot.

7 Little Johnstons fans may regularly critique Liz Johnston, calling her Amber Johnston 2.0., and more. The one universal aspect that the vast majority of fans can agree with is that Leighton Bolden is a real gem. There were a lot of fan...

It’s a wonder nobody’s done it already: an apocalyptic horror-comedy, based around the idea of the Millennium Bug. For anyone too young to remember the furore around ‘Y2K’, the general idea was this: a major computer error was predicted to hit the world’s computer systems on the dawn of the millennium, since the two-digit year-date system in older computing models would suddenly flick over to ‘00’. Cue world-ending mayhem. Thankfully, as we now know, nothing happened – though opinion is still divided on whether that’s as a result of hasty bug fixes implemented in the run-up to the year 2000, or whether reports of an impending crash were simply over-exaggerated. Either way, it’s ripe for cinematic treatment – and that’s exactly what you’ll find in A24’s impending Y2K. Watch the trailer here.

From SNL alumnus – and the filmmaker behind cult favourite Brigsby Bear – Kyle Mooney,...

Over the years, with many updates and additions, Niantic has made it a point to push Pokemon Go players to team up with one another and catch em’ altogether. Players can team up with other trainers and do raid battles, trade Pokemon and send gifts for various valuable items such as potions.

Last year, with the “Party Play” option, the studio further elevated the game’s social aspect by allowing trainers to team up and get special bonuses for various activities. Players had been hoping that the studio would build upon this, but in a recent update, one of the biggest incentives to play with players has been completely axed.

Pokemon Go Removes Raid Pass Reward From Refer a Friend System

Pokemon Go‘s referral program was an exciting experience for old players to encourage newer ones to try out the game or even lure former players back into the fold.

In recent years Michael Shannon has begun to emerge as one of film’s most versatile and ubiquitous actors. Often cast his villains or law enforcement agents Shannon always brings a brooding intensity to his roles and manages to use that intensity for both good characters and bad that often know a lot more than they are saying.

Shannon first started his career as a stage actor in Chicago. He gained a great deal of notice and other roles from his appearances in the plays of a then little-known actor turned playwright named Tracy Letts. Shannon credits his work in the plays of Letts for the film and television opportunities that came his way after he appeared in two of Lett’s acclaimed plays “Bug” and “Killer Joe.”

He returned to the stage, receiving a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his role as Jamie...

Parental guilt springs from an inexhaustible source. Even if your kids go to sleep every night safe, clean and fed, there’s still plenty to beat yourself up about. Are they creative enough? Excelling enough? Getting enough Vitamin D to stop their bones from crumbling like Oxo Cubes and their adult teeth from coming in like a splayed hand of playing cards?

Are you, in short, doing everything you can to give them The Best Possible Childhood?

In online parenting circles, The Best Possible Childhood has recently had a rebrand. Bloggers have looked with concern at the device-blue light illuminating the faces of kids who hiss like a pointy-toothed Bilbo Baggins hissing for the One True Ring whenever an attempt is made to separate them from their phone. They’ve decided that what today’s kids need is what they had: the 1990s.

In an act of collective amnesia, or...

Over his many years of activity, Danny Trejo has established an exemplary career filled with various and diverse roles in both movies and video games. Recently, the actor revealed his favorite game, and despite having a sort of appearance in 7 Days to Die, this is not his favorite game.

On his social media, the actor revealed that this particular game is more related to Nintendo’s Animal Crossing than the survival title. The actor also tagged the studio because it used his likeness in a character model that resembled him without his knowledge.

A Strange Way to Connect With Danny Trejo by the People Behind 7 Days to Die 7 Days to Die is not the favorite video game of Danny Trejo. Animal Crossing won that privilege. Image Credit: Nintendo

This actor is known for being very active on social media and being grateful for his numerous roles throughout his extensive career.

OutDaughtered fans always loved Hazel Busby because she was the easiest quint to identify, and now, they love that she’s on the road to doing big things with her talent. It came after TLC star, Adam Busby shared a video of his red-headed daughter.

Hazel Busby Is Talented At Nine

Riley, Ava, Olivia, Parker, and Hazel turned nine years old in April, so they are no longer adorable babies. Over the years, TLC fans saw the kids go through the June Bug collection stage. Riley led the way in discovering lizards and frogs. Meanwhile, Parker transformed from an anxious little girl into a confident model for her mom’s Graeson Bee clothing line.

The Busby Quints From OutDaughtered – @Itsabuzzworld | Instagram

The OutDaugheterd twins, Ava and Olivia perplexed fans who still struggle to tell them apart, and Hazel Busby, the last of the quints to learn how to swim, took to dancing.

Here we are with another case of “Wait, that was a book first?” Although, having watched the movie for the first time and seeing its reputation online, this is also a case of “Wait, that was a movie?” William Friedkin was a master filmmaker and although most of his stone-cold classics happened before 1990, he proved he still had plenty in the tank with things like The Hunted and Bug to name a couple. He was a replacement director which seems surreal considering his talents and he was one of 3 credited writers on a little remembered horror movie adaptation from 1990. The Guardian (watch it Here) is based on The Nanny from 1987 and it’s a strange pairing of source material and finished product. Both pieces of media are mostly slept on in their respective fields but how close did Friedkin and the other writers come to matching the book? Always do...

Starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, the 1997 film Men In Black was a huge hit upon its release, earning critical and commercial success, which was followed by two sequels along with a stand-alone fourth installment. However, crafting the intricate world of aliens and secret agents proved a formidable challenge for the creators.

Men in Black | Credit: Columbia Pictures

In a 2022 oral history of Men In Black discussion, director Barry Sonnenfeld, production designer Bo Welch, and screenwriter Ed Solomon reflected on the process of making the movie and revealed how they spent close to $1 million on an animatronic bug, ultimately abandoning its use in the final cut.

Men in Black Spent $1 Million in an Unused Giant Animatronic Bug

The first film in the Men in Black franchise follows Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) and Agent J (Will Smith) as they investigate a series of alien-related incidents, and across a dangerous...

Andrea Arnold was last in Cannes with Cow in 2021, a documentary about a bovine’s pitiful existence on a farm from birth to death. Her new film, Bird, might switch animal classifications — and return her to narrative features about human beings — but there’s connective tissue between the two. Once more, Arnold is perfecting her meandering journey through marginalized existences.

This time, we’re in Gravesend, in Kent, a estuary town east of London, in the dying days of summer, when the grass has yellowed but the sweaty heat hasn’t quite abated. Bailey (Nykiya Adams) is a 12-year-old mixed-race girl who is old beyond her years, as everyone in her chaotic community seems to be. Her father Bug (Barry Keoghan) is barely twice her age; her 14-year-old half brother Hunter (Jason Buda) is a masked vigilante, teaming up with a similarly pint-sized gang to take revenge against anyone they...

In the weeks leading up to her latest project Bug, Kacy Hill is dealing with the usual pre-album jitters. The Arizona-born singer is used to these. She’s been in the industry for over a decade now, having gotten her start as a back-up dancer on Ye’s Yeezus Tour and eventually being signed to Good Music. After releasing one album with the label — 2017’s Like a Woman — she announced her departure in 2019.

In the aftermath of parting ways, Hill pursued an independent music career during the pandemic, debuting Is...

Fontaines D.C. have unveiled details for their fourth album, Romance, due out August 23rd via Xl Recordings. As a preview, the band has unveiled the lead single, “Starburster.” Watch the music video for the new song below.

Romance follows the band’s celebrated 2022 release Skinty Fia and seeks to further push Fontaines D.C. into new sonic and thematic territory. Incorporating elements of hip-hop, shoegaze, grunge, and more, the album continues the Irish act’s reflections on nationality, identity, and notions of idealism. Notably, Romance also marks the band’s first collaboration with Consequence’s 2023 Producer of the Year James Ford.

“We’ve always had this sense of idealism and romance,” guitarist Conor Deegan stated. “Each album gets further away from observing that through the lens of Ireland, as directly as Dogrel. The second album (A Hero’s Death) is about that detachment, and the third (Skinty Fia) is...

"In the vastness of space and time, many tales weave into one, under the light of a thousand suns." There's an exciting original sci-fi series about to launch next week. A Thousand Suns is the latest creation from a filmmaker known as "Macgregor", produced by a company called Blackmilk Studio. There's not much out yet about the plot or the different stories. There will be a total of six anthology episodes to watch: Episode 1 - Ice; Episode 2 - Red; Episode 3 - Exodus; Episode 4 - Deal; Episode 5 - Bug; & Episode 6 - Tomorrow Land. Macgregor says his team of filmmakers, including Ruairi Robinson & Tyson Wade Johnston, worked to craft "films that serve as a gateway to our hopes, dreams... and nightmares." This seems like a sleek live-action anthology series akin to Love Death + Robots that will tell various sci-fi stories. I'm really digging the footage in this teaser, and will be...

The world of gaming comprising Helldivers 2, Valorant, Elden Ring, and many more titles constitutes a major chunk of the entertainment industry as a whole. Recent decades have also seen immense growth in not only the audience but also the production quality of these video games, resulting in various genres that have been curated such as open-world, first-person shooters, and multiplayer.

However, none would have been possible without the pioneer games that were way ahead of their times. The first ever Doom, a game that came out back in 1993 would be a perfect example of the same, as it brought a revolution to the industry no other title was able to bring at the time.

The first ever Doom game responsible for elements used today | Released in 1993 Why Games Like Helldivers 2 And Others Owe Their Success To The First Ever Doom Title

Games, particularly first-person shooters, and multiplayer titles, inherit different...

Earlier this week, Carrie Coon became ever more beloved among film fans when she told Jimmy Fallon that she and her husband Tracy Letts have over 10,000 movies on Blu-ray, praising physical media. Recently, we sat down with Coon to discuss her role in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and couldn’t help but ask her to elaborate on her physical media comments. She took the opportunity to double down on the importance of collecting movies:

“I guess I didn’t understand what we would be losing with streaming. Tracy (Letts) really did educate me about the fact that so many of these films now are completely inaccessible if you don’t own them yourself.” She also took the opportunity to give a shout-out to boutique labels like Kino Lorber, Arrow Video, Criterion, Shout Factory and more: “And, of course, there are all these companies putting out new imprints of original films and doing beautiful work.

The developers of Sony’s Helldivers 2 have finally decided to give fans what they have been asking for ever since the game’s release last month. Adding to the already vast arsenal, Arrowhead Studios has finally given fans exosuits, or mechs to help them in their mission to liberate the galaxy.

Unfortunately, the gameplay of these mechs has caused the game to receive some critique online, pointing out how the feature seems to be way less powerful than it claims and needs to be.

Helldivers 2 offers a vast variety of arsenal Why Are The New Exosuits In Helldivers 2 Receiving Criticism Online?

Criticism revolving around these mechs has started surfacing on the internet, such as this post from IGN, stating how the mechs are way weaker than they need to be. Calling out the latest addition, the critique mentioned

“If you get swarmed while in the mech, you’ll get ripped to shreds immediately.

Helldivers 2 is a title currently all the rage in the gaming industry. Gamers cannot get enough of the title on PC and PlayStation 5, while Xbox gamers have to resort to Halo mods in case they want to protect democracy virtually.

Since Arrowhead Game Studios released the title recently, gamers frequently explore new elements in the game. One aspect of the game that adds to the already incredibly chaotic setting and backdrop is planetary hazards in the game. Various gamers posted gameplay footage on social media of their characters succumbing to the wrath of the environmental trials and tribulations added to the game in the latest update.

What are planetary hazards in Helldivers 2? The recent meteor storms added to Helldivers 2 are scary (and fatal).

A significant update was released for Helldivers 2, titled patch 01.000.100. One can check out the complete patch notes released alongside the update here. Apart from gameplay balancing changes such as nerfing load-outs,...

For Kacy Hill, making her album Bug helped her catch her feelings before they flew away.

On Friday, the singer released “You Know I Love You Still,” a single off of Bug, out May 3, which explores her musical instincts and how, even if she tries, she’ll never be able to let go.

“‘You Know I Love You Still’ is a love song to music,” she said in a press release. “I’ve spent a number of years in this industry now and in my most vulnerable moments, I wish...

Exclusive: Pulitzer Prize-winning August: Osage County playwright Tracy Letts has signed with UTA for representation in all areas, the agency said today.

A prolific playwright and actor, Letts’s career in theater has spanned decades, including the Tony- and Pulitzer-nominated The Minutes, which he wrote and starred in. The dark comedy opened on Broadway on April 17, 2022.

Letts’ other recent Broadway productions include his play Linda Vista in 2019. The same year, he starred opposite Annette Bening in a Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, and he won a Tony for his portrayal of “George” in the 2012 revival of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Letts was honored with the Pulitzer in 2008 for his August: Osage County, winner of five Tony awards including Best Play.

In 2019, Letts played Henry Ford II in James Mangold’s Ford v Ferrari and starred in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women.

With the Screen-to-Stage-back to Screen adaptation of Mean Girls landing in first place this weekend, we wanted to know what film based on a play has been your favorite? Are Oscar winning musicals such as Chicago or Amadeus your favorite? Maybe the classics like Grease or Little Shop of Horrors are more your speed? Or perhaps a nice court room drama such as A Few Good Men ranks number one for you? If you don’t see your favorite listed click the “Other” button and let us know what your favorite is in the comments.

Favorite Stage-to-Screen AdaptationCasablanca (1943)West Side Story (1961)My Fair Lady (1964)The Sound of Music (1965)A Man For All Seasons (1966)Oliver! (1968)Amadeus (1984)Driving Miss Daisy (1989)Chicago (2002)Alfie (1966)American Buffalo (1996)Annie (1982)Annie Get Your Gun (1950)A Bronx Tale (1993)Bug (2007)Cabaret (1972)Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)Children of a Lesser God (1986)Closer (2004)The Crucible (1996)Cyrano (2021)Dear Evan Hansen...

To any fans who’d wished for Russell T Davies to return as Doctor Who showrunner and correct where they thought the show had drifted off course since his absence, it might be a case of ‘careful what you wish for’. Oh? You wanted Doctor Who to be like it was in the olden days before it got ‘woke’? Let’s resolve Davies’s first episode with a trans woman of colour chanting “Non-binary”. You wanted Doctor Who to retcon all of Chris Chibnall’s changes to the canon? Well, we’re going to make his plot points key emotional touchstones for the new specials and series – and then invent bigeneration.

And now the next step in Davies’ campaign against those who want Doctor Who to be like it was in the old days (whenever they were), is to make pronouncements about the show’s genre.

“The show is taking a sly step towards fantasy,...

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2023, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

The greatest year in cinema since the monumental offerings of 2007––a transformative year that set the seeds for this very site to come into existence––2023 offered a resounding affirmative that indeed the medium is alive and well: auteurs flexing what they do best, newcomers providing a hopeful voice for the future of filmmaking, along with a plethora of worthwhile offers. Along with my personal favorites when it came to U.S. releases, two films also premiered that would’ve topped this list had they come out in 2023: Bertrand Bonello’s The Beast and Víctor Erice’s still-shockingly-undistributed Close Your Eyes.

While they didn’t make the top 15 cut below, I must make mention for the most essential, one-and-done viewing of the year with De Humani Corporis...

We’ve have films like Bug, Slither, Arachnophobia and more to exploit our fears of entomophobia, but what about video games? tinybuild’s Kill It With Fire is more humour than horror, but luckily (and for Fps fans), indie developer Heinn’s Chitin is here to rectify that.

Submitted as part of itch.io’s sewerjam 3 (and available for free on itch.io), there’s not a lot in terms of story for Chitin. Heinn laments this, instead focusing on atmosphere. According to them, their main goal for Chitin was to “try and evoke what I felt going through the rot part of Dark Souls 3 snow Dlc.”

But really, do you need much in terms of story when you’re trying to survive as you make your way through a bug-infested building, shooting them as you go? Your revolver has infinite ammo, but it’s offset with a long reload time.

The Exchange has acquired the world sales rights for romantic comedy “The Islander,” starring Grammy- and Emmy Award-winning musician and actor Harry Connick Jr. The film features two original songs by Connick. The Exchange will introduce the title to buyers at next week’s American Film Market.

“The Islander” is about a down-on-his-luck rockstar, who moves to a remote cliffside house, sight unseen, on an island, only to discover his new home has an unfortunate notoriety. Through a series of charming mishaps, it turns out maybe love can be found right where he left it.

The film is written, directed and produced by Stelana Kliris under her Cyprus-based Meraki Films banner. It is also produced by Jupiter Peak Productions, Steven Shapiro, and Keith Arnold, with the support of the Cyprus Deputy Ministry of Culture, and the Cyprus Film Commission’s incentives scheme.

Alongside Connick, it stars Agni Scott, Ali Fumiko Whitney and Tony Demetriou.

Welcome to our weekly rundown of the best new music — featuring big singles, key tracks from our favorite albums, and more. This week, Nicki Minaj freestyles over Drake and Chief Keef’s “All the Parties” on a suprise drop, 21 Savage gets even for the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 soundtrack, and Blink-182 revamp an old favorite with their classic lineup. Plus, star-studded tracks from 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne, Rick Ross and Meek Mill, and Charli Xcx and Sam Smith.

Nicki Minaj feat. Drake and Chief Keef, “For All the Barbz” (YouTube)

21 Savage,...

On Friday, October 6, cinephiles were given a precious gift when Showtime dropped one last film by the late, great William Friedkin: an adaptation of Herman Wouk’s play “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial.” The film is classic Friedkin, a clinic in blocking, editing, and camera movement reminiscent of earlier theatrical adaptations like “The Birthday Party,” “The Boys in the Band,” and “Bug.”

While there are many filmmaking lessons to be learned from studying the piece, one notable Friedkin disciple had the chance to examine the director’s process firsthand: Guillermo del Toro, who shadowed Friedkin throughout production as a backup in case the 87-year-old filmmaker was unable to complete the movie.

Long before he ever met Friedkin, del Toro was an admirer of his work. “He is an original,” del Toro told IndieWire. “He blends the lessons of documentary with complex and precise technology and narrative prowess. Every decision he...

Plot: A Naval officer (Jake Lacy) is on trial for mutiny. His court-appointed attorney (Jason Clarke) must prove that his captain (Kiefer Sutherland) was dangerously unbalanced and that mutiny was the only solution to protect the crew.

Review: The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is an interesting final film for the late William Friedkin. While most know him for his seventies epics, having directed at least three or four of the greatest films ever made, many don’t know that he started his career with a couple of films based on stage plays: The Birthday Party and The Boys in the Band. His most recent work, Bug and Killer Joe, were also stage adaptations (of works by Tracy Letts), but The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is more traditionally mounted than those. This is basically a stage play put to film, with no exteriors, no music and only two sets.

The play was written...

The modest aims of director William Friedkin’s final film, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, are evident from the start. The film is an adaptation of Herman Wouk’s 1954 two-act play of the same name, which the author adapted from his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1951 novel The Caine Mutiny. And both Wouk’s play and Friedkin’s film jettison the book’s maritime actions to focus solely on the military tribunal that results from it.

That means that nearly the entire film takes place within a small hearing room where military judges hear arguments for and against Lieutenant Stephen Maryk (Jake Lacy), who faces both discharge and imprisonment for usurping the command of Lt. Commander Phillip Queeg (Kiefer Sutherland) during a storm. Maryk and a handful shipmates argue that Queeg lost control of his senses and had to be displaced, but the burden of proof for upending the military’s fiercely maintained chain...

Somewhere, at any given moment, there’s a film director adapting a stage play to the big screen. Yet it’s rare, and fascinating, to see a filmmaker steeped to the gills in cinema as cinema who also has a grand obsession with the theater. Robert Altman was like that. His great films of the ’70s were so naturalistic they seemed to dissolve the edges of the movie frame, yet in the ’80s, starting with “Come Back to the Five & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean,” he adapted nine plays in a row, the last of which, in 1988, was a darkly solid made-for-tv version of “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial.”

William Friedkin, the legendary director who passed away last month, just before his 88th birthday, represents another case like Altman’s. In the early ’70s, when Friedkin commandeered Hollywood and the world with the extraordinary one-two punch of “The French Connection” (1971) and...

Strays director Josh Greenbaum has waited four-plus years for today.

In 2019, when Greenbaum started filming Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, he operated under the belief that his feature directorial debut would be a traditional theatrical release. But 2020 had other plans, as Barb and Star became one of many films to go from theatrical to premium VOD or streaming due to the pandemic. But then the impossible happened. The high jinks of Kristen Wiig, Annie Mumolo and Jamie Dornan caught lightning in a bottle, especially Dornan’s beachside serenade to a squabble of seagulls, and the comedy cut through the saturated home market to become a cult hit.

Despite his initial disappointment, Greenbaum soon found himself on a Zoom opposite Guillermo del Toro, who generously agreed to host Barb and Star’s Directors Guild of America Q&a. So the fact that Greenbaum’s debut film was still...

William Friedkin, who died August 7 at the age of 87, will get a programming tribute courtesy of Turner Classic Movies in a two-part block on September 14 and November 26.

There will be a triple feature on September 14 of the Gene Hackman-starring “The French Connection,” to air at 8pm, followed by “To Live and Die in LA” at 10:00 pm.

The night will be capped off with “The Boys in the Band” from 1970, a pre-“French Connection” feature concerning a birthday party that was an, at the time, ground-breaking feature for LGBTQ representation.

Night two, over Thanksgiving weekend, will feature the TCM premiere of the 2018 documentary “Friedkin Uncut,” followed by “The Exorcist.” For those who still need more Friedkin gems, “Bug,” “Killer Joe” and “The Hunted” will fit the bill.

One of Friedkin’s first breakthroughs jobs was directing one of the last episodes of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.” Hitchcock would reportedly scold...

Filmmaker William Friedkin forever changed horror with 1973’s The Exorcist, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Director. He returned to the genre again in 1980 with the Giallo-like thriller Cruising and fearlessly got weird with gory folk horror The Guardian in 1990. Fearless perfectly encapsulates Friedkin’s style and his approach to life; he was never afraid to speak his mind or direct productions too peculiar or niche for mainstream audiences. The not-so-easily defined psychological thriller Bug, and its mixed initial reception, speaks to this.

That likely stemmed from Friedkin’s upbringing and his early career start in nonfiction. Bridging his path from his earlier work in commercials and documentaries to his seminal horror effort was television. It was a single episode of a popular anthology series from a horror master that kickstarted Friedkin’s career in fiction, and Friedkin never seemed to forget it.

While the acclaimed director continued to trailblaze in film,...

Director William Friedkin, who is best known for directing the Oscar winning films, the horror classic ‘The Exorcist’ along with the neo-noir action thriller ‘French Connection’, has passed away at the age of 87. Friedkin had been suffering from heart problems for some time and finally succumbed to heart failure and pneumonia at his home in Bel Air, Los Angeles, his wife and former producer and studio head Sherry Lansing announced, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

Some of his other big films included ‘Sorcerer’, ‘To Live and Die in L.A.’ and ‘Bug’. In addition, he also made his foray into television with serials such as ‘Tales From the Crypt’, ‘The Twilight Zone’, ‘Space Quest’, ‘C.A.T. Squad’ and ‘Rules of Engagement’.

While these movies and serials were modest successes at the box office, they were all very positively received and over time have been given a much more positive approach. Most...

William Friedkin was an acclaimed American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He gained recognition for directing notable films such as “The French Connection” (1971) and “The Exorcist” (1973), the former of which earned him an Academy Award for Best Director. Friedkin’s filmography also includes “The Boys in the Band” (1970), “Sorcerer” (1977), “Cruising” (1980), “To Live and Die in L. . (1985), “Blue Chips” (1994), “Jade” (1995), “Rules of Engagement” (2000), “The Hunted” (2003), “Bug” (2006), and “Killer Joe” (2011).

In 1965, Friedkin relocated to Hollywood and released his debut feature film, “Good Times,” featuring Sonny and Cher. He continued to make artistic films, such as the adaptation of Mart Crowley’s “The Boys in the Band,” as well as “The Birthday Party,” based on an unpublished screenplay by Harold Pinter, which he adapted from his own play. However, Friedkin aimed to establish himself as a director of action and serious drama, exploring themes of crime, hypocrisy, the occult, and amorality within the...

Filmmaking legend William Friedkin has sadly passed away, although he left us with one last film before his death. The director of "The French Connection" and "The Exorcist" was recently gearing us for the release of what will now serve as his final bow, "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial." The film is based on Herman Wouk's courtroom stage drama of the same name, itself adapted from Wouk's own 1952 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. It also rounds out what could be considered an unofficial trilogy of plays-turned-films directed by Friedkin after his previous two non-documentary features, "Bug" and "Killer Joe" (both of which were based on plays by Tracy Letts).

"The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial" centers around one Lieutenant Stephen Maryk (Jake Lacy), a Naval officer who is put on trial for mutiny after he forcibly relieves the captain of the USS Caine, Lieutenant Commander Phillip Queeg (Kiefer Sutherland), from his duties, believing him to be mentally unfit.

For the director who gave cinema the ultimate car chase in “The French Connection,” William Friedkin was remarkably at ease with films set in a single room, bringing several plays to the screen over the course of his career. The director — who died August 7 at age 87 — will have his final film screened out of competition in the Venice Film Festival next month, fittingly an adaptation of Herman Wouk’s play “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial.”

Friedkin made his name (and won an Oscar) for “The French Connection,” followed immediately by the instantly iconic “The Exorcist,” but he never lost an abiding interest in live performance, even directing operas off and on for the last 25 years.

In fact, Friedkin was so taken with the 2004 Off-Broadway premiere of Tracy Letts’ play “Bug” that he phoned Letts directly to say he’d like to adapt it into a film — with star Michael Shannon. In one fell swoop,...

Oscar-winning director William Friedkin, legendary filmmaker behind the 1971 crime thriller The French Connection, and 1973’s The Exorcist, among many others, died Monday in Los Angeles at the age of 87.

Identified closely with the New Hollywood movement of the 1970s, Friedkin began his career in documentaries prior to embarking on one of his most well-known works, The French Connection, a film which earned five Academy Awards out of eight nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Gene Hackman, Best Directed Screenplay and Best Director for Friedkin. Considered one of the greatest films ever made, The French Connection appeared in the American Film Institute’s list of the best American films in 1998 and again in 2007. In 2005, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

Related: William Friedkin: Hollywood Remembers A Legend

Friedkin’s 1973 film The Exorcist...

William Friedkin, the legendary director of iconic films including “The Exorcist” and “The French Connection” and a leading figure in the “New Hollywood” movement of the 1970s, has died at the age of 87.

Friedkin is best known as the director of two of the most successful Hollywood blockbusters of the early 1970s, “The French Connection” in 1971 (the first action movie to win Best Picture Oscar) and “The Exorcist” in 1973. Friedkin rose to prominence alongside the likes of Peter Bogdanovich, Francis Ford Coppola and Hal Ashby as a member of a new class of Hollywood auteurs.

His death was confirmed to TheWrap by family friend Stephen Galloway who spoke to Friedkin’s wife, Sherry Lansing, herself an iconic leader of Paramount Pictures for many years. No cause of death was provided.

Friedkin had recently completed “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial” starring Keifer Sutherland and Jason Clarke. His now-final film will premiere in...

William Friedkin, Academy Award-winning filmmaker of The Exorcist, has died at the age of 87.

The director passed away in Los Angeles, according to his wife Sherry Lansing, a former producer and movie studio executive. Among other films, Friedkin also helmed The French Connection, To Live and Die in L.A., Sorcerer, and Rules of Engagement.

In the 1970s, Friedkin was part of a generation of directors alongside Francis Ford Coppola, Hal Ashby, and Peter Bogdanovich who blazed their own path through Hollywood. Following Friedkin’s success with The Exorcist, he formed The Directors Company with Coppola and Bogdanovich as a power play for creative independence. However, the short-lived business partnership dissolved not long after they collectively turned down Star Wars.

Friedkin’s entryway into entertainment was a two-year stint in the mailroom of the Chicago TV station WGN after high school, which kickstarted his rise into directing television shows and documentaries.

William Friedkin, the Oscar-winning director of “The French Connection” and legend behind “The Exorcist,” has died at age 87. His death in Los Angeles was first reported by Variety, and the news was confirmed by Chapman University dean Stephen Galloway, a friend of Friedkin’s wife, former studio head Sherry Lansing.

Friedkin’s sensational 1971 “The French Connection” earned five Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Picture. Friedkin’s 1973 “The Exorcist” changed the game for horror, earning Best Picture and Director nominations.

Friedkin is regarded as a maverick of the New Hollywood school of filmmakers alongside the likes of Peter Bogdanovich and Francis Ford Coppola. His other features include his breakout “The Birthday Party,” “The Boys in the Band,” “Sorcerer,” “Cruising,” “To Live and Die in L.A,” “Bug,” and most recently “Killer Joe” — all films that garnered controversy in one way or another.

Friedkin’s latest film, “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,...

William Friedkin, the Oscar winner behind The French Connection and The Exorcist who was one of the most admired directors to emerge from a wave of brilliant filmmakers who made their mark in the 1970s, died Monday. He was 87.

Friedkin died of heart failure and pneumonia at his home in Bel Air, his wife, former producer and studio head Sherry Lansing, announced.

His pictures, which also included Sorcerer (1977), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) and Bug (2006), were marked by an exceptional visual eye, a willingness to take what might have been a genre subject and treat it with high seriousness and a sense of how sound could add a subterranean layer of dread, mystery and dissonance to his stories — a haunted and haunting quality that lifted his visceral works into another realm, conveying a preternatural sense of “fear and paranoia, both old friends of mine,” as he said in his 2013 memoir,...

Director William Friedkin, best known for his Oscar-winning “The French Connection” and blockbuster “The Exorcist,” died Monday in Los Angeles. He was 87.

His death was confirmed by Chapman University dean Stephen Galloway, a friend of Friedkin’s wife Sherry Lansing.

His final film, “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,” starring Kiefer Sutherland, is set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

Along with Peter Bogdanovich, Francis Ford Coppola and Hal Ashby, Friedkin rose to A-list status in the 1970s, part of a new generation of vibrant, risk-taking filmmakers. Combining his experience in television, particularly in documentary film, with a cutting-edge style of editing, Friedkin brought a great deal of energy to the horror and police thriller genres in which he specialized.

“The French Connection” was an incredibly fast-paced and morally ambiguous tale, shot in documentary style and containing one of cinema’s most justifiably famous car chase sequences. “Connection” won several Oscars including best picture,...

Tatiana Maslany, Laurie Metcalf, and Paul Sparks star in ‘Grey House,’ a scary, psychological play that turns Broadway into a haunted house of horrors.

“I’ve seen this movie. We don’t make it…”

Horror is a popular genre for many reasons, but at the end of the day there is just nothing like the genuine experience of being afraid. Horror films do their best to immerse their audience in terror with no reprieve, yet there are inherent limitations to this storytelling medium. There’s still screen, and therefore safety, between the audience and their fears. Live theater, especially those on Broadway, live and die through their ability to not just keep audiences entertained, but to truly believe in the spectacle before them. Horror on Broadway is therefore a deeply appealing combination, albeit one that’s all-too rare because of the difficulty in its execution.

There’s The Crucible, The Elephant Man,...

An ensemble of gifted actors effectively play against type in Michael Shannon’s quietly powerful directing debut, none more so than Judy Greer, outwardly numbed by sorrow but raw inside as a mother whose son shot and killed three high school classmates. While the subject matter inevitably invites comparison with Mass, that well-received 2021 chamber piece — also a first feature by an actor, Fran Kranz — kept its focus tight on two sets of parents on either side of a similar tragedy. Eric Larue casts a wider gaze, taking in the broader community and the religious leaders fumbling or manipulating the conversation about healing.

Shannon’s deep roots in Chicago theater are evident in his choice of material and his success at assembling a first-rate cast — uncommonly strong across the board for a modestly scaled indie like this.

The script was adapted by Brett Neveu from his play of the same name,...

When Annie Blackman was 13, she met Taylor Swift. It was the fall of 2011, and like countless middle schoolers, she’d been listening all year to Speak Now, marveling at perfectly phrased darts like “Dear John” and “Mean.”

“I started the whole music journey as a big Taylor Swift girl,” Blackman, 24, says over coffee at a Bushwick, Brooklyn cafe. “I remember she wrote that album entirely by herself. There was this obtainability to it: ‘Oh my God. She got successful by just writing her own music.’”

So when Swift closed out the U.

Carol Locatell, who had a memorable turn as the foulmouthed mother Ethel Hubbard in Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning and worked alongside Burt Reynolds in three films, has died. She was 82.

Locatell died April 11 at her home in Sherman Oaks after a long battle with cancer, her husband, songwriter and record producer Gregory Prestopino, told The Hollywood Reporter. They were together for 50 years.

Locatell moved from Los Angeles to New York in the mid-1980s to shake up her career, and from her first audition there she landed a part on Broadway in Neil Simon’s Broadway Bound, which premiered in 1986. She then appeared in The Shadow Box in 1994 and in The Rose Tattoo a year later.

She first met Reynolds when she auditioned for him for a role in Simon’s Chapter Two at his dinner theater in Jupiter, Florida. She worked with him in Paternity...