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Will Smith was once known as one of Hollywood’s biggest blockbuster action stars. The actor was well aware of his standing in the genre. At the same time, he was very much concerned about aging out of those kinds of roles.

Will Smith already started to feel his age doing this action movie Will Smith | Cory Ryan/Getty Images

Smith’s path to movie stardom initially began with action movies. As an actor, he was steadily building his portfolio back in the 90s in works like Six Degrees of Separation and Fresh Prince of Belair. But Bad Boys was the start of Smith becoming the blockbuster star he’d later become. It was something he owed to filmmaker Michael Bay for insisting that he run around shirtless in the movie for this now iconic scene.

“For this scene, I wanted to have my shirt on, and Michael was like,...

I’m 45 and Playing a Grandmother. Am I Done?

Dear Remy,

I’ve been an actress for over 20 years, and I’ve just landed a role in a new TV show. Sounds great, right? Except I’ve been cast as a grandmother. I’m 45. I’ve still got abs, Remy! I do hot yoga four times a week and could probably bench-press my 30-year-old co-star, but instead, I’m apparently spending my scenes knitting and reminiscing about “the good ol’ days.”

The actor playing my grandson is 30. Thirty! I could date him in real life (and believe me, I have dated in that age range—they just have so much more zeal!), but instead, I’m playing his dear old grandmama. I half expect my next scene to be me handing him a hard candy and telling him how I met Grandpa at Woodstock (spoiler: I was not alive during...

Tom Cruise has turned enough impossible dreams into reality to make him a real-life miracle man. But the movie star’s obsession with defying death and his own mortal strength has also made the world respect him even more than they love him. In recent years, fellow movie star Will Smith too has felt the effects of the fan craze that the Mission: Impossible star leaves in his wake.

Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible [Credit: Paramount Pictures]

Not to be a stickler for details but Tom Cruise isn’t made out of rocket fuel, as much as he would like to believe otherwise. However, that little fact has never stopped Cruise from scaling the world’s tallest skyscraper, neither has it impeded his desire to ride a motorcycle off a cliff – multiple times in one day. Unlike us fans who have simply accepted Cruise as superhuman, Will Smith learned the hard...

Have you ever wondered just how far fans would go to frame a new tale starring their beloved celebrities? Well, the sky’s the limit! And with AI (artificial intelligence) now thrown into the mix, fans are able to paint a more vibrant picture. Case in point: a fan-made video featuring none other than Will Smith and Chris Rock, whose names will forever be entwined with the dramatic events of the 94th Academy Awards in 2022.

Will Smith in Gemini Man (2019) | Credit: Paramount Pictures

That unforgettable slap, when Smith slapped Rock after the latter remarked about Jada Pinkett Smith, is now the stuff of legend. Social media erupted like a volcano, spewing memes and commentary left and right. But the above-mentioned humorous fan video imagines Smith and Rock having a buddy-buddy exchange about their “natural instincts”.

Did Will Smith & Chris Rock Really Make Up? This Fanmade Video Makes It Seem So

Oh,...

Charlize Theron has dubbed 'Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga' a "beautiful film" and praised Anya Taylor-Joy.The 48-year-old actress played Imperator Furiosa in 2015's 'Mad Max: Fury Road' and she and the 28-year-old actress, who played a younger version of her character in the latest movie in George Miller's money-spinning post-apocalyptic franchise, released earlier this year, are eager to meet up to "connect" over the role.She told The Hollywood Reporter of the fifth instalment in the series: "It's amazing, it's a beautiful film."Asked if she's discussed it with Anya yet, she replied: "No, we've really been trying to connect."It's been one of those – we can actually make a comedy out of it. We keep running into each other and in places when we don't have time to really talk to each other, so we're constantly like, 'Oh my god, Ok, let's get together!

The Hollywood Reporter and Lasvit, the Czech designer and manufacturer of bespoke glass products, are pleased to invite attendees of the upcoming 58th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival to a very special event: the recording of a career-retrospective interview with Clive Owen.

On Friday, July 5, at 1 p.m. local time, Owen — an English actor with an Oscar nomination and Golden Globe and BAFTA awards to his name, who is set to receive Kviff’s President’s Award on July 6 — will sit down with yours truly at the Spa Hotel Imperial to record an episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast.

The 59-year-old is best known for his work in films such as Robert Altman’s Gosford Park (2001), Mike Nichols’s Closer (2004), Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City (2005), Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men (2006) and Ang Lee’s Gemini Man (2019), as well as on television programs including...

The Slap aside, Will Smith proved this month that he’s still a bankable, global movie star with the return of “Bad Boys: Ride or Die.” “Bad Boys” studio Sony is teaming with Smith yet again, this time on a sci-fi feature.

Smith will star in and produce “Resistor” for Sony Pictures, a science-fiction film based on the book “Influx” by New York Times Bestselling author Daniel Suarez.

Plot details for the film are being kept under wraps, but Suarez’s book, released in 2014, is about a dystopian future where the government hides and controls any technological advancements and withholds them for a select few. The story follows a physicist who discovers a device that can alter gravity. But when he refuses to participate with the government organization on his innovation, he’s thrown into a hellish, high-tech prison occupied by other would-be inventors and rebels.

Zak Olkewicz (“Bullet Train...

Will Smith thinks that improvements to TV shows have made things harder for the film industry.The 55-year-old star believes that the box office is struggling because the spectacle is now matched on the small screen, making it more challenging to entice audiences to the cinema.Speaking on the latest episode of Hot Ones, Will said: "The definition of a hit is still pretty much the same. Essentially, it's just harder to get one."You used to be able to put some explosions in the trailer and a couple of good jokes and people were there. And television is so good, there are things that people just aren't going to leave their house for. There's definitely a higher demand for a certain type of film for people to leave their homes."Meanwhile, Will also revealed that he regards the 2006 drama 'The Pursuit of Happyness' as the "best movie" of his career.

George Miller is planning more 'Mad Max' films.The 79-year-old filmmaker spent more than a decade working on prequel 'Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga', his fifth movie in the franchise across a 45-year period and he admitted there are "certainly" other stories he wants to tell featuring the same characters.He told reporters at the Cannes Film Festival: “There are certainly other stories there. Mainly because in order to tell the story of Fury Road, we had to know the backstory of Furiosa and Max in the year before.“That was a tool for the cast and crew. We know the Max story from the year before. I’ll definitely wait to see how this ['Furiosa'] goes, before we even think about it.”George admitted he's amazed the franchise has been able to keep going for so long but he'd never have done so if...

When Game of Thrones TV series creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss set out to craft an epic series called 3 Body Problem, an adaptation of a trilogy of sci-fi novels written by Chinese author Liu Cixin, for the Netflix streaming service, they were hoping to get four seasons out of the material. But when the first season of 3 Body Problem started streaming in March and pulled in a sizeable but underwhelming number of views, some began to question whether or not Netflix would want any more episodes of the big budget show. Now The Hollywood Reporter has broken the news that Netflix has indeed ordered more episodes – but just enough to allow Benioff, Weiss, and co-creator Alexander Woo to wrap up the story. Exactly how many episodes that will be has not yet been revealed.

The showrunners provided the following statement: “We’re thrilled that we get to tell...

“Mad Max” mastermind George Miller considered using de-aging technology so that Charlize Theron could star in his “Fury Road” prequel “Furiosa,” but says “it would have been difficult” to pull off. Instead, he opted to cast someone new in the role of Imperator Furiosa: Anya Taylor-Joy.

In a Variety cover story on Taylor-Joy and “Furiosa,” which premieres on Wednesday night at Cannes Film Festival, Miller said he had observed de-aging used in movies like Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” and Ang Lee’s “Gemini Man” starring Will Smith.

“Both of them were masterful directors, but it was never persuasive,” Miller said of the technology. “I thought all people would be watching is Charlize looking young and knowing it’s an effect. And as time went on and we got into litigation with Warner Bros, we had to find someone younger.”

The 79-year-old director added that one of the things that...

Imperator Furiosa is, in my humble opinion, one of the most important characters to hit the big screen in the last 20 years. She represents a justified rage often denied to women in post-apocalyptic films, a physical capability typically reserved for men who have been shaved down from slabs of meat on a GyroKone, and serves as a protector of the five wives — a woman looking after other women who are treated as little more than a form of currency. When "Mad Max: Fury Road" director George Miller expressed a desire to make a standalone epic prequel focusing on Furiosa, fans were thrilled at the prospect. Charlize Theron beautifully brought Furiosa to life, so it was only natural that she'd be brought back for the film.

During a special screening of "Furiosa" and a press event with Miller at IMAX Headquarters, he explained that replacing Theron was a matter of logistics.

Even after almost a decade, critics and audiences continue to heap praise on Mad Max: Fury Road. The 2015 sci-fi classic earns every accolade, from its subtle character work to its jaw-dropping visuals. But there’s one thing that cannot be said about Fury Road: that it has no CG.

True, director George Miller and his stunt team did many of the most impressive action sequences in-camera. But he did so with the assistance of computer graphics to erase the safety wires and other rigging. In other words, Miller has no problem using computer effects, provided that they don’t get in the way of the story he’s telling.

For the same reason, Miller chose to recast one of the people most responsible for the brilliance of Fury Road. In the upcoming prequel Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Anya-Taylor Joy smears on the black grease paint of Imperator Furiosa, taking...

When it comes to the classics of cinema—and sometimes the dregs—it’s always fun to think about what might’ve been. Casting especially can be a strange alchemy between actor and role, and when the formula is off, it’s easy to ponder whether the spell would work at all. Can you imagine Robert Redford as Michael Corleone? What about Tom Selleck as Indiana Jones? And it’s an interesting challenge to envision what Tim Burton’s Batman might’ve been if it starred Bill Murray versus Robin Williams.

The casting of Neo in The Matrix is another legendary “what if?” in movie history. The 1999 classic, which just turned 25 years old earlier this month, is now beloved for its reinvention of Keanu Reeves. He plays Neo in the film; a former sad sack hacker who discovers he’s actually a superpowered messiah sent to free us from a digital prison.

Gabriel García Márquez’s famed novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude” is finally landing an adaptation courtesy of Netflix.

A sprawling 16-episode series is set to debut later this year, bringing Márquez’s beloved 1967 bestseller to the screen. “One Hundred Years of Solitude” is one of the most ambitious film projects in Latin America to date, brought to life by the most talented artists from Colombia and Latam, filmed entirely in Spanish and shot in Colombia with the support of author Márquez’s family.

The series is produced by independent Colombian entertainment company Dynamo, which has been behind more than 47 feature films and 25 television series. Previous Dynamo releases include fellow Netflix series “Wild District,” “Crime Diaries,” and “Green Frontier,” as well as providing location services to “Narcos,” “El Chapo,” and “Gemini Man.”

“One Hundred Years of Solitude” was filmed in the regions of La Guajira, Magdalena, Cesar, Cundinamarca, and Tolima in Colombia.

Minutes into the medieval intro of “The Faceless Lady,” a fair maiden rips off her face. You immediately feel a bit nauseated. But did the violence trigger that reaction — or is it the fact that the action seems to be happening somewhere deep in your visual cortex?

“The Faceless Lady,” a collaboration between Meta and producer Eli Roth, is billed as “the first known scripted original VR live action, stereoscopic (3D) series ever produced of its size.” Although it’s designed for the Meta’s Quest headset, the story and scope seem wide enough to exist out of the headset. It’s a complete package that could bring fresh eyes to next-gen storytelling.

The six-episode undertaking, written by Jerome Velinsky and directed by John William Ross, is an escape room spin on ghostly lore. Three twentysomething couples head to the mysterious Kilolc Castle in Ireland to play deadly games for...

Ang Lee is moving on from 3D filmmaking after a trio of hit or miss releases: “Life of Pi” (2012), “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” (2016) and “Gemini Man” (2019). The former title was an acclaimed blockbuster that won Lee the Oscar for best director, while the latter two releases, also distributing in high-frame rate at 120 frames per second, were mostly critical misfires and big financial disappointments. Lee hasn’t made a movie since “Gemini Man.”

“I tried higher frame rate and I tried 3D,” Lee recently told IndieWire. “I tried new ways of making movies. Those pictures are really sharp. That’s a lot of pressure. Everything is difficult, so that is always a great pressure. I cannot get into detail on how to make those movies. People have not tried even one minute of that scale. I did two feature films. That’s great pressure. Of course, that brought in economic pressure,...

More than just a dramatist and storyteller, Oscar-winning director Ang Lee (“Brokeback Mountain”) is an innovator in the vein of James Cameron and has always been quick to test new filmmaking technologies. Lee has been eager to experiment with early motion capture technologies, as he did the mo-cap himself for his movie “The Hulk” and the exceptional 3D and CGI used in his acclaimed “Life of Pi.” More recently, the filmmaker embraced things like 3D and high frame rates in his films “Gemini Man” and “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk.” However, in a recent interview with IndieWire, the director said he’s soured on the technologies and won’t return to them anytime soon, specifically 3D.

Continue reading Director Ang Lee Sours On 3D After Experiences With ‘Billy Lynn’ & ‘Gemini Man’: “The Whole Ecosystem Is Bad” at The Playlist.

Back when there was a legitimate attempt to resurrect the 3D format, Ang Lee was at the forefront, beginning with 2012’s Life of Pi. But after failures in 2016’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk and 2019’s Gemini Man — neither of which needed to be in 3D or shot in 120 fps — Lee will go back to more basic ways of storytelling with his Bruce Lee biopic.

As Ang Lee told IndieWire, “It’s too hard, especially after the two movies. The 3D is just too hard. I’ll go back to the regular way, the old way of making movies. There’s a great story to be told, a lot to explore. I’m still working on it. But it won’t be in 3D.”

Ang Lee’s problems with 3D and reasons for stepping away from it are multi, saying, “In general, not only my two movies, 3D in general …[is] so bad.

It’s been the better part of five years since Ang Lee’s last feature, Gemini Man, which you might not realize because even––especially––its biggest champions will tell you it’s best-watched in theaters, a tough deal owing to the director’s use of 3D and high-frame-rate images. Whatever amazement it engendered couldn’t fight against public distaste both formats face (to say nothing of middling reviews and meager buzz) and we’re essentially guaranteed Lee won’t return to either, making it and Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk a curious one-two in his strange career.

Speaking to Indiewire, Lee described his intents in notably strong terms: “I tried new ways of making movies. […] People have not tried even one minute of that scale. I did two feature films.” Though he’s often seemed a humble figure, one can sense real frustration with those who couldn’t...

Ang Lee broke ground on films like “Gemini Man” and “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” developing new camera systems to experiment with de-aging and high-frame rates in 3D. But as the old adage goes, you’re only as good as your last picture, and in the case of the Oscar-winning “Brokeback Mountain” director, he hasn’t released a new movie since 2019’s “Gemini Man” bombed at the box office. As did “Billy Lynn,” a movie that could only be shown properly in a small handful of screens, before it underperformed in 2016.

Lee, who is being honored at his alma mater New York University at a Tisch gala on April 8, spoke with IndieWire about his experiences making those films — and why he’s not going to repeat their innovations for his upcoming Bruce Lee biopic, starring Ang Lee’s own son Mason. Lee also had harsh words about the state of 3D filmmaking,...

“Mad Max: Fury Road” (2015) reignited the post-apocalyptic genre with its action and vision. This was the fourth movie in the Mad Max franchise and the first since 1985. Directed by the creative mind of George Miller, it starred Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron in leading roles.

Tom Hardy || Mad Max: Fury Road

The film’s success led to calls for more, and those calls are being answered with “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” a prequel focusing on Theron’s character’s earlier adventures. However, Theron won’t be reprising the role and there’s a solid reason behind this.

SUGGESTEDThe Batman 2 Must Make Robert Pattinson Replace His Old Batmobile With This New One That Looks it Came Straight Out of a ‘Dark Knight x Mad Max’ Crossover

George Miller Did Not Go The De-Aging Route For Furiosa Despite Martin Scorsese And Ang Lee Doing So

George Miller’s new movie...

Director George Miller is synonymous with the Mad Max franchise, which helped cement his status as one of the best action filmmakers in Hollywood. 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, won the director critical acclaim and reinvigorated interest in the hit franchise.

Charlize Theron as Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road

The film was anchored by Charlize Theron’s brilliant performance as Imperator Furiosa. However, when Miller announced that he was working on a Furiosa-centric prequel/spin-off film without Theron’s involvement some fans were understandably bummed. In a new interview, Miller has opened up about choosing to recast Theron for the prequel, and here is what the director revealed.

George Miller Explains Why He Decided to Recast Charlize Theron’s Role For Furiosa

George Miller explains recasting Charlize Theron (Credits: Conan/TBS)

George Miller‘s latest foray into the Mad Max universe comes in the form of a prequel/spin-off...

Has it really been nine years since "Mad Max: Fury Road" barreled into theaters, reestablished George Miller as (arguably) the greatest action filmmaker on the planet, and made a blessedly clean break with the franchise's highly problematic (to put it lightly) star? Almost a decade later, everything about the film feels not just present, but prescient. Thematically, aesthetically, and politically, it was the perfect film for an uncertain time -- and, in terms of judiciously utilizing CG to enhance practical, large-scale stunt work, no one has come close to matching it.

"Mad Max: Fury Road" loses none of its high-octane impact on rewatch, but when you begin analyzing it on a purely technical level you can't help but wonder how in the heck Miller pulled it together without going, well, mad. No less a filmmaker than Steven Soderbergh has expressed total bewilderment (in a good way) over Miller's achievement. So...

Game of Thrones TV series creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are now set to bring viewers an epic Netflix series called 3 Body Problem, an adaptation of a trilogy of sci-fi novels written by Chinese author Liu Cixin. The premiere date for this one is March 21st – and with that date just two weeks away, a final trailer for the show has made its way online. You can check it out in the embed above.

The 3 Body Problem was the title of the first novel in Cixin’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy. The second novel was titled The Dark Forest and the third Death’s End. The novels tell the story of what happens when humanity discovers that we are not alone in the universe and prepares for an alien force arriving from a distant and inhospitable world. The title refers to the aliens’ star system, which...

Science fiction drama 3 Body Problem is arriving on Netflix next month, and the first trailer for the show has landed. More here.

Writers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are perhaps best known for adapting and showrunning HBO’s hugely successful fantasy drama Game Of Thrones, which took the world by storm from its debut in 2011 through to 2019, even if the final series was controversial amongst the fans.

Since then, they’ve concentrated mainly on solo projects – though in recent days we’ve also heard about their brush with the Star Wars-verse. Beinoff wrote the 2019 Ang Lee film Gemini Man, which starred Will Smith, while Weiss wrote the screenplay for the 2022 Netflix teen comedy Metal Lords.

Their return to television sees them at the helm of Netflix science fiction drama called 3 Body Problem.

The synopsis reads as follows:

Ye Wenjie (Rosalind Chao) is an astrophysicist, who saw her father...

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“Beckham” has officially been defeated — the Netflix miniseries, not the soccer star. “The Fall of the House of Usher” moved from second place to first on Netflix’s Top 10 English-language TV list Tuesday.

This shift comes a week ahead of Halloween, fitting for the spooky miniseries based on the work of Edgar Allan Poe. The series from Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy secured 7.9 million views in its second week. With those numbers, it beat out last week’s reigning champion “Beckham,” which secured 6.9 million views.

Also on the English-language Top 10 list were the U.K. limited series “Bodies” in the No. 3 spot with 5.5 million views, the fantasy series “I Woke Up a Vampire” in the No. 4 spot with 3.4 million views and Season 4 of the comedy “Sex Education” in the No.

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David Beckham docuseries “Beckham” held onto the top spot on Netflix’s most-watched TV shows list, beating the debut viewership for Mike Flanagan’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” by over 5 million viewers.

As the sports series maintained its lead on the English TV list for the second week in a row as it logged an additional 11.6 million views this week, the horror drama miniseries took the No. 2 spot on the list as it tallied 6 million views since its Oct. 12 release.

Next up was the fourth and final season of “Sex Education,” which took the No. 3 spot on the list with 4 million views, while docuseries “Big Vape: The Rise and Fall of Juul” came fourth on the list with 3.1 million views and “Love Is Blind” Season 5 took the No.

Mexico’s Guannaby Films and Colombia’s Dynamo have joined forces to make “The Last Circus.” Among the 10 feature film projects being presented at Iberseries & Platino Industria’s Co-Production and Financing Forum, it promises “magnetic, complex but fun characters in what is primarily a family tale,” said actor-producer Christian Tappan, co-founding partner of Guannaby Films alongside Luis Emilio Guzmán and Tiago Correa.

Written by Guzman and to be directed by “The Thin Yellow Line” helmer Celso Garcia, “The Last Circus” turns on Gerardo, a gypsy con artist, who has just lost his family’s circus business due to its mounting debt. A chance to redeem himself comes when he stumbles across the Heart of the Warrior, a priceless gem that has been stolen from a museum. Unfortunately, the jewel thieves will stop at nothing to recover their prized loot.

Garcia describes the project as a family tale “that explores human relationships,...

The end of September will feature a whopping four major wide releases. Sony is expanding “Dumb Money” after a few weeks of platforming. 20th Century Studios’ “The Creator” earned $1.6 million in previews while Lionsgate’s “Saw X” earned $2 million in Thursday previews.

That “Saw” figure is better — sans inflation — than the $1.6 million earned by “Jigsaw” in October of 2017 and the $1.7 million earned by “Saw 3-D” in October of 2010. “Spiral: From the Book of Saw” earned $750,000 in its previews amid a Covid-era May debut in 2021.

With shockingly good reviews and a strong reaction thus far by fans of the long-running grindhouse series, Lionsgate is hoping for an opening weekend at least on par with the $17 million Fri-Sun debut of “Jigsaw.”

Sure, the first four sequels opened with over/under $30 million. However, “Saw V” — the franchise’s last mega-opener — debuted 15 years ago, amusingly against the $42 million launch of “High School Musical: Senior Year.

Kamal Haasan to look younger with de-aging technology as they joining hands with De aging experts worked in Avengers Endgame and Captain America

Fans of Kamal Haasan are eagerly awaiting the release of Indian 2, the sequel to the 1996 blockbuster Indian, directed by Shankar. The film, which is expected to hit the screens in 2023, will feature Haasan reprising his dual roles of Senapathy, a freedom fighter turned vigilante, and his son Chandru, a corrupt bureaucrat. To achieve this feat, the makers of the film have roped in Lola VFX, a Hollywood-based company that specializes in digital de-aging technology.

Lola VFX is known for its work on films such as Captain Marvel, Gemini Man, Captain America and It Chapter Two, where they made actors look decades younger with the help of computer-generated imagery (CGI). The company has also worked on several Marvel Cinematic Universe films, such as Ant-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2...

Movies about clones have been around for ages and are easily a fan favorite. Netflix's new movie "They Cloned Tyrone," which hit the streamer on July 21, is no exception.

The film stars Hollywood hotshot John Boyega along with Teyonah Parris and Jamie Foxx. The trio work together to uncover a government cloning conspiracy that sees agents watching the lives of Black people so they can make them vanish and replace them with clones. The movie's twist ending is sure to stick with you long after the credits roll.

If you're finished watching "They Cloned Tyrone" and itching to see more movies about clones, check out the list below, and soon you'll be seeing double.

1. "Oblivion"

Tom Cruise stars as Jack, a member of a team tasked with surveying the smoldering ruins of planet Earth in the year 2077, 60 years after a battle with aliens where Earthlings lost. While on his journey,...

The episode of Best Horror Movie You Never Saw covering Overlord was Written by Andrew Hatfield, Narrated by Kier Gomes, Edited by Paul Bookstaber, Produced by John Fallon and Tyler Nichols, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

The channel covers so much from the ’80s and ’90s but the truth is, there’s more horror floating around now than ever before. With the rise of horror studios like Blumhouse or prestige studios like A24 realizing that horror can not only be profitable but award worthy, the theaters have no shortage of scary. That’s not even including streaming services like Tubi, Shudder, and even the big 4 going all in on either producing or showcasing horror on their platforms. A lot of these end up being successful but some of them flounder a bit, even when they deserve to soar. Today’s movie has good names in front of and behind the camera,...

Here’s a fun fact that Hollywood actors hate to admit… people get older.

In a reaction to the natural progression of life, Hollywood has engaged in de-aging effects for older actors to play younger versions of their characters, whether in franchises or standalone films — such as Robert DeNiro in “The Irishman,” Samuel L. Jackson in “Captain Marvel” and most recently, Harrison Ford in “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.”

Like most new technology that comes into the industry, it takes some getting used to. However, with more than two dozen high-profile experiments thus far, the misfires greatly outweigh the successes. De-aging effects in Hollywood still need to be fine-tuned, and Hollywood should only use them once we can perfect the technique.

A primary concern is that while these effects are visually impressive, they fall short of replicating the natural appearance of a younger self. In addition, it can...

Amanda Peet and David Benioff have been together for over two decades. The pair met in 2002 when Peet was just a budding actor and Benioff was kickstarting his career as a screenwriter, according to The Sun. After falling in love and getting engaged, the couple officially said "I do" in September 2006. Since then, they've welcomed three children together, Frances Pen, Molly June, and Henry Peet, and have become one of Hollywood's most successful couples.

You may recognize Peet from movies like "The Whole Nine Yards," "Something's Gotta Give," and "Syriana," as well as TV series like "Jack & Jill," "Togetherness," and "Brockmire." Currently, she stars in Paramount+ miniseries "Fatal Attraction." As for Benioff, he's the writer behind "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," "Game of Thrones," and "Gemini Man." In 2021, the couple also worked together on the TV series "The Chair." Peet was credited as a co-creator and writer, and she and her...

Ang Lee has been making movies for over three decades. That is an impressive career. That the majority of those films are good (and some are amazing) puts him on a whole other level. Born in Taiwan, the Republic of China, and educated in the United States, Lee has made extremely Chinese films and extremely American films, as well as some that mix the two cultures — plus the occasional excursion to the United Kingdom or India for a literary adaptation. But wherever his films take place, and no matter who stars in them, Ang Lee is always interested in what's under the surface of his characters — in people's emotional lives, their feelings for others, and what they keep hidden from the world.

Family has been an omnipresent theme in Lee's work since he kicked off his career with three movies in a row about dads. Sexuality also comes up a...

Most of the movies we’ve enjoyed over the last hundred years consist of 24 frames per second, but we’ve seen directors experiment with a high-frame-rate more and more. One director who has pushed Hfr to its limits is Ang Lee, who shot his last two movies, Billy Lynn’s Halftime Walk and Gemini Man, at 120fps. When it was announced that Ang Lee would be directing a Bruce Lee movie, many expected that he would once again shoot the film at 120fps; after all, Bruce Lee was known for his lightning-fast moves, which a traditional camera could barely pick up. Our own Chris Bumbray recently spoke with Ang Lee about the upcoming re-release of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, where the director revealed that he will not be shooting the Bruce Lee movie in Hfr.

“Bruce Lee, because he’s so fast, he was laughed at when he shot the Green Hornet in the beginning,...

Director James Cameron and Wētā FX’s senior visual effects supervisor Joe Letteri didn’t waste any time laying the groundwork for “The Way of Water.” After the game-changing “Avatar” revolutionized virtual production and performance capture in 2010, Cameron and Letteri got together at a retreat to assess what they could do better. Fortunately, Wētā was well underway in refining its performance capture and facial animation capabilities, along with writing the software for its physically based rendering engine, Manuka, and real-time pre-lighting tool, Gazebo, innovations that greatly benefited the “Planet of the Apes” and “Hobbit” franchises, as well as “Alita: Battle Angel” and “Gemini Man.”

What Cameron had in mind for “The Way of Water” required even greater innovative tech from Wētā and his own Lightstorm studio. The director wanted the look of a NatGeo doc for his sci-fi sequel, which would expand the world of Pandora to include the Metkayina...

Fans have been waiting for "Avatar: The Way of Water" for almost a decade and a half now. James Cameron's first "Avatar" film was a marvel of technical innovation when it came out and while whether or not you liked the story depended on personal preference, there is no way to argue with how visually beautiful it was.

The new film continues the story of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a human marine in the future who has his consciousness permanently encased in his Na'vi avatar, his wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and their growing family of children, both adopted and biological. The humans who cause so much destruction on Pandora are back, and they're trying to take resources again, bringing strife to the moon world, and hunting Jake.

There are huge battles, gorgeous underwater scenes, and some spectacular CG and motion capture work. There is also, however, the use of...

13 years in the making, James Cameron's new film "Avatar: The Way of Water" is, true to the filmmaker's ethos, a technical marvel of the highest order. Set on a distant alien moon, the film is about a war between the honorable, nature-loving Na'vi and a cadre of vengeful human super-Marines who team up with evil whalers to hunt down the film's protagonists. The Na'vi are nine-foot tall, blue-skinned, large-eyed creatures, and are visually realized with advanced motion-capture technology. Actors like Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Cliff Curtis, Sigourney Weaver, and others have all been digitally interpolated to look like enormous aliens, and the effect is uncanny. Cameron also famously filmed many of his actors underwater to give them the proper movements and to experiment with how far he could push effects. 

Most notoriously, however, Cameron also shot several "The Way of Water" sequences in 48 frames per second, a format that...

The weekend is over, the cash has been counted, the credit card receipts have been tabulated and as expected James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water came out on top with a reported 134 million opening weekend. That number is Way below even the most modest of expectations. On Thursday some predicted around 200 million (even I overestimated in my prediction of 180 million), on Saturday it looked like 150 million but I’m not sure how many saw it coming in this low.

The thing with James Cameron blockbusters is: they don’t tend to be front loaded. We have come to expect films to have massive opening weekends followed by severe drops. Think about the over 60 declines Marvel movies have suffered lately. The Way of Water saw only a 15 decline from Friday to Saturday, even a movie like Top Gun: Maverick saw a 27 Friday to Saturday decline. James Cameron has built...

As early reactions to “Avatar: The Way of Water” roll in, one thing is abundantly clear: James Cameron’s long-gestating sequel is a visual masterpiece that deserves to be seen on the biggest screen possible. But you’re not alone f you’re not sure what screen that is,

The film is being rolled out in a variety of digital formats, with both 2D and 3D options available. The first “Avatar” marked the beginning of something resembling a creative heyday for 3D filmmaking, with films like “Hugo,” “Goodbye to Language,” and “Jackass 3D” going on to demonstrate the creative potential of the medium. But mainstream 3D filmmaking never quite caught on to the extent that people believed it would after “Avatar,” and it has become increasingly rare for a major new release to be screened in 3D, let alone shot with 3D viewing in mind. But “Avatar: The Way of Water” is precisely that.

James Cameron’s 2009 blockbuster “Avatar” didn’t just decimate previous box-office records — the film that Steven Spielberg once termed an “emotional spectacle” changed the way movies were made and shown. The cultural impact of the sci-fi epic (or lack thereof) continues to be a topic for debate, but its influence on virtual production and 3D viewing cannot be denied. Before Ilm’s StageCraft wrapped Pedro Pascal and Grogu in immersive, reactive “Star Wars” landscapes, before a performance-captured Andy Serkis brought a whole new level of expressiveness as Caesar to the “Planet of the Apes” franchise, before Ang Lee’s mad-science frame-rate experiments in “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” and “Gemini Man,” there was Pandora, the Na’vi, and the “director-centric” workflow developed for “Avatar” by Oscar winner Rob Legato.

On “Avatar,” Cameron could shoot his actors in the volume like live action using Glenn Derry’s Simul-Cam virtual camera,...

Martial arts legend Bruce Lee is getting the biopic treatment. Oscar-winner Ang Lee is set to direct a film about the late actor, simply titled "Bruce Lee," for Sony's 3000 Pictures. What's more, the filmmaker has actually tapped his own son, Mason Lee ("The Hangover Part II") to star as the Hollywood icon in the upcoming biopic, making it a high-profile family affair.

According to Deadline, Dan Futterman ("Foxcatcher") is currently working on the script, a script that has already passed through many hands up to this point. Lee, in addition to direction, will produce alongside the likes of Lawrence Grey, Shannon Lee, Ben Everard, and Brian Bell, with Elizabeth Gabler and Marisa Paiva overseeing the project for the studio. Ang Lee had this to say about it:

"Accepted as neither fully American nor fully Chinese, Bruce Lee was a bridge between East and West who introduced Chinese Kung Fu to the world,...

Following Life of Pi, released a decade ago this fall, Ang Lee dabbled in the transportive cinematic technical experiments Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk and Gemini Man that, unfortunately, failed to connect with audiences. The director is now set to return with a film that should hopefully garner some widespread attention.

Deadline reports he will direct Bruce Lee, a biopic of the legendary martial artist and actor, who will be played by Ang Lee’s own son Mason Lee. Set up at Sony Pictures and currently being scripted by Dan Futterman.

Ang Lee is no stranger to the world of martial arts with his record-breaking Oscar-winner Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. For quite some time he tried to get his 3D Muhammad Ali fight film off the ground, but it never saw the light of day, so we’ll be curious to see if any technology or planning developed for...

Oscar-winning filmmaker Ang Lee has cast his son Mason to play Bruce Lee in a biopic about the legendary martial artist for Sony’s 3000 Pictures.

The “Brokeback Mountain” director will helm a script by Dan Futterman, building on previous versions by Jean Castelli, Alex Law and Mabel Cheung and, most recently Wells Tower.

Bruce Lee’s daughter Shannon Lee will produce the film, which is untitled for now, along with Ang Lee, Lawrence Grey of Grey Matter Productions, Ben Everard and Brian Bell. 3000 Pictures’ Elizabeth Gabler and Marisa Paiva will oversee the project on behalf of the studio. They previously collaborated on Lee’s 2012 film “Life Of Pi.”

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Said Ang Lee, “Accepted as neither fully American nor Fully Chinese, Bruce Lee was a bridge between East and West who introduced Chinese Gung Fu to the world,...

Over the weekend of September 23, James Cameron's 2009 ultra-blockbuster "Avatar" was re-released in theaters with a brand new visual remastering. Some theaters might have advertised that "Avatar" was to be projected in 4K, but little else might have been revealed in terms of the remastering technicals. The new version certainly looks better, but the improvement did not involve any new animation or rendering. It was all thanks to a new kind of motion adjustment technology called TrueCut Motion. Thanks to a recent visit to Pixelogic studios in Burbank, CA, /Film was made privy to the fineries of TrueCut Motion, and what exactly a team of hard-working technicians were doing to improve the visuals of the already visually complex "Avatar."

To start with an analogy: Imagine it's the year 2006, and you still own a cathode ray tube TV. You have a DVD player, and all your favorite movies look great on DVD.

As the closer to Saturday’s lengthy, star-studded Disney Studios panel at D23 Expo, James Cameron, beaming in from New Zealand where they are working on the finishing touches of “Avatar 2” (out this Christmas!) and the cast (on stage in Anaheim) revealed a good chunk of footage from the new movie. It was overwhelming, in every way possible, as Cameron debuted the footage in 3D Hfr to a noticeably muted response in the room.

“Since everybody’s together there, all our film fans and we’ve got the cast right there, why don’t we show you some scenes from the movie?” Cameron said, via satellite (or whatever high tech contraption he undoubtedly designed in a lab). “We’re going to hand out 3D glasses and you are going to be the first audience to get a sneak peek from a few scenes from ‘Avatar: The Way of Water.’” (Cameron...

Credit: Daniel McFadden / Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures © 2022 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

“Many years ago, a battle between good and evil was waged between Samaritan and Nemesis, twin brothers who became sworn enemies. They were freakishly strong, but they unintentionally hurt people. The residents of Granite City grew to fear the brothers. They waited until the family slept, then boarded up their home and set it on fire. The parents were burned alive, but the twins were unscathed. Samaritan grew to fight for justice and be a protector. But Nemesis, consumed by revenge, wanted the world to suffer.

“Samaritan tried to contain his brother’s fury, so Nemesis forged a powerful weapon, a hammer that he poured all his hate and rage into. It was the only thing that could destroy Samaritan.

“Samaritan and Nemesis died in a blast during the battle. It was a story everyone in Granite City has been told.

Shari Hanson has been elevated to executive VP of physical production and visual effects for Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Animation.

Under her new title, she will continue to work on Paramount’s live-action films and will expand her portfolio to include titles produced at Nick Animation. Hanson’s promotion comes as Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Studios work to streamline their strategy for production. Hanson joined the company in 2015.

Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Studios president of worldwide physical production Lee Rosenthal announced the promotion and called Hanson “an exemplary executive, and invaluable member of our team.”

“As we all know, Shari is a great physical production executive and trusted partner to our producers, as witnessed on ‘The Lost City,’ ‘Clifford the Big Red Dog,’ ‘Gemini Man’ and ‘Crawl,'” Rosenthal said in a memo to staff. “With this newly created hybrid role, we have an amazing opportunity to bridge our VFX and production work in unique,...