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Transitioning from child star to leading actress, Joey King became a dynamic force in the entertainment industry, showcasing her remarkable range and talent through various projects. Rising to popularity, particularly from her Netflix franchise—The Kissing Booth, King’s journey in Hollywood is marked by strategic choices, demonstrating her versatility and dedication to her craft.

Joey King in Uglies | image: Netflix

From captivating audiences in diverse roles to contributing to the industry as a producer, Joey King has earned a massive net worth that is about to explode in her wallet. Further, her marriage to filmmaker Steven Piet surged their combined net worth to a staggering sum, that is sure to leave you shell-shocked.

Joey King’s Rise to Fame as a Child Actor

While kids of her age were busy annoying their parents, Joey King was out here building up her net worth. Starting her career at a tender age through commercials,...

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‘Tis the season for joy and happiness. One of the best ways to countdown to Christmas is with an advent calendar. And then you add in Lego, and there’s something for everyone to celebrate.

We rounded up the best Lego advent calendars on Amazon, especially for pop culture enthusiasts. Lego has sets available for Marvel, Star Wars, and much more with prices starting at just $26.

Shop Lego...

Plot: In a futuristic world that imposes a cosmetic surgery at 16, Tally is eager for her turn to join the rest of society. But when a friend runs away, Tally embarks on a journey to save her that upends everything she thought she wanted.

Review: After Harry Potter and The Hunger Games were adapted for the big screen, every studio wanted to launch a franchise based on a Young Adult book series. While Twilight was the biggest success, countless other series were met with lukewarm receptions yet still delivered multiple sequels. It has been several years since The Maze Runner, Percy Jackson, and Divergent stopped adding to their intellectual property while countless others failed to get past an initial entry. Based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Scott Westerfeld, Uglies is Netflix’s belated attempt to attract the YA audience with what is intended to be the first in a potential quadrilogy.

Kimberly Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr., announced the upcoming release of her children’s book, The Princess and Her Pup, but faced immediate backlash on social media given the recent controversy over South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) and killing her family’s pet dog years ago.

Guilfoyle, a former Fox News host, promoted the book as a “heartfelt story that teaches children that it’s easier to be courageous with a friend by your side.” She said proceeds would help abused and abandoned dogs and cats.

However, given Noem’s dog drama in the last month, the timing couldn’t have been worse. Excerpts from the Republican governor’s upcoming memoir revealed she once shot and killed her 14-month-old wirehaired pointer for being “less than worthless” as a hunting dog when she was younger. Noem also admitted to shooting a smelly goat at the same gravel pit.

Exclusive: 2x Emmy winner Bob Odenkirk has closed a deal to return for Nobody 2, a sequel to the acclaimed 2021 action thriller from Universal Pictures and 87North.

Timo Tjahjanto (The Night Comes for Us) will direct from a script by Derek Kolstad, Aaron Rabin (Jack Ryan), Odenkirk, and Umair Aleem (Kate). Kelly McCormick and David Leitch are returning to produce through 87North’s first look deal with Universal, as are Odenkirk, Marc Provissiero through Odenkirk Provissiero Entertainment, and Braden Aftergood through Eighty Two Films.

Slated for release on August 15, 2025, the film will be overseen for Universal by Executive Vice President of Production Development Jay Polidoro and Director of Development Tony Ducret.

While plot details for the sequel are being kept under wraps, the original film centered on Hutch Mansell (Odenkirk), a seemingly ordinary suburban father who suppresses his past as a deadly government assassin. After a home invasion shakes his family,...

“The Kept Man of The Princess Knight” official synopsis from Yen Press: “While the beautiful princess Arwin selflessly delves into the dungeon searching for a way to save her kingdom, Matthew aimlessly wastes his days (and her money) on brothels and booze. Causing trouble wherever he goes on the rough streets of the Dungeon City, Matthew is scorned by everyone—except for Arwin. When it comes to her, Matthew's loyalty may run far deeper than his deplorable reputation lets on. Could his attitude be nothing more than a facade to hide the true lengths he would go to for the princess…?”

on Amazon by clicking on the image below

It is difficult not to leave the inaugural volume of “The Kept Man of The Princess Knight” with much positivity. On a rudimentary level, the dark fantasy/action title succeeds in bringing an edginess highlighting the violence and overt sexuality,...

The official websites and accounts for the previously announced I Want to Escape from Princess Lessons anime series today unveiled a pair of teaser visuals featuring protagonists Leticia and Clarke, along with confirmation of a 2025 broadcast. It was also revealed that the long-betrothed couple will be voiced by Haruka Shiraishi and Jun Fukuyama (King in The Seven Deadly Sins ), respectively. Related: A Journey Through Another World: Raising Kids While Adventuring TV Anime Releases New Trailer Featuring Op Theme Based on the light novels by Izumi Sawano and Miru Yumezaki, Shinobu Tagashira directs and provides character designs for the I Want to Escape from Princess Lessons anime at studio Emt Squared, with Tomoko Kanemaki ( Kingdom Hearts manga) alongside as series composer. J-Novel Club publishes an official English version of the series and describes the story: Duchess Leticia Dorman has been betrothed to Crown Prince Clarke since age seven. She was once a rambunctious and free-spirited child,...

Stars: Aaron Eckhart, Laetitia Eido, Chris Petrovski, Alex Pettyfer, Nina Bergman, Nick Moran, Olga Kurylenko | Written by George Mahaffey | Directed by Jesse V. Johnson

Ben Malloy is the CIA’s Chief of Station for The Baltics. Or at least he was until, in the film’s opening minutes, his wife Farrah, who was also in the intelligence business, is killed by an explosion. Six months later he’s unable to get over her death and his son Nick blames him for his mother’s death and won’t return his calls.

The final straw however comes when the agency calls him in for questioning, trying to frame her as a double agent and freezing him out. He decides to head back to Budapest to look for answers on his own. While John, his former assistant and now his replacement, brushes him off, Farrah’s former boss Hitchens points him in...

Romantic comedies are back, baby! After the success of Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell’s Anyone but You and Lindsay Lohan’s Irish Wish, studios’ wallets are pitter-patting for amor with a touch of giggle juice. Netflix is coming into Monday with a first look at the streamer’s upcoming romantic comedy A Family Affair, starring Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron, and Joey King.

Richard Lagravenese directs A Family Affair from a screenplay by Carrie Solomon. The tangled web of emotions revolves around a surprising romance that kicks off comic consequences for a young woman, her mother, and her movie star boss as they face the complications of love, sex, and identity. Liza Koshy and the legendary Kathy Bates also star.

Netflix’s first look at A Family Affair includes a gallery of stills from the movie showing the primary players sorting their emotions, medical mishaps, and, if I’m not mistaken,...

Joey King has nothing against method acting – it’s just not for her.

Especially for projects like her latest, the Holocaust series “We Were the Lucky Ones.”

Based on Georgia Hunter’s best-selling novel of her family’s fight to survive the Holocaust, Logan Lerman stars as Hunter’s grandfather Addy alongside King as his younger sister Halina. Rounding out the cast are Sam Woolf, Robin Weigart, Lior Ashkenazi, Hadas Yaron, Amit Rahav and Eva Feiler.

“I think anyone who is a method actor is truly so brave and amazing, but I’m personally not a method actor,” King tells me on this week’s episode of the “Just for Variety” podcast. “And when shooting a show like this, I just don’t know how I could be because having those moments of release in between setups and in between takes with your friends [is needed].”

“Sometimes you need that release at...

A strong-willed young woman fighting for her life against a motherfricking dragon, that’s all you need to know about Netflix’s Damsel. Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, Damsel follows the story of a young woman who marries a handsome prince but realizes that it is all a trap when she is thrown into a cave. Now, she must fight and win against the dragon living in the cave to get back to her family and exact her revenge on her soon-to-be ex-in-laws. If you love the fantasy action film here are some similar movies you could watch next.

Ready or Not (Rent on Prime Video & Fubo) Credit – 20th Century Studios

Evil in-laws and a deadly ceremony, that’s what is common in Netflix’s fantasy thriller Damsel and Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin directed horror thriller Ready or Not. The 2019 film follows the story of Grace, who couldn’t...

The Stranger Things star isn’t always convincing as a princess fighting for her life, but there’s some fun to be had from this rousing subversion of storybook tropes

Taking age-old expectations of how a fairytale is supposed to play out and giving them a brisk shuffle is by no means as fresh as some film-makers often like to think, upending cliches with a tired wink and a smug smirk. But Netflix’s Damsel, itself loosely similar to Hulu’s 2022 offering The Princess, doesn’t require our astonishment at its wheel reinvention to pass the bar and is far too sprightly to get overly bogged down in the self-satisfaction of such an endeavour.

There are, in fact, very few surprises in store here – perhaps Fast X writer Mazeau’s script could have benefitted from a few – but there’s a simple, mechanical satisfaction to watching an underdog fight her way back from the depths,...

The damsel in distress narrative device is a foundational storytelling element for the majority of people. Fairytales tell of princesses in peril and video games hide princesses in another castle. These women are treated as prizes to be won, a congratulatory gift to the men who saved these supposedly weak and helpless ladies who would have certainly perished without a man's intervention. Damsel in distress tropes date back to the ancient Greeks but the misogynistic belief that women are fragile creatures who need men to protect them is unfortunately still an intrinsically held value system for a shocking number of people. It's the grandmother of tropes like "fridging" as seen in media and literature, or more insidiously, "missing white woman syndrome" in real-life situations of women in harm's way.

Fortunately, plenty of alternative damsel characters exist to switch up the narrative. Megara in Disney's "Hercules" flipped the typical animated princess...

A medieval word with a highly specific (but often misused) meaning, “damsel” describes a young, unmarried lady-in-waiting. It’s also the broad title given many a helpless heroine in Hollywood movies — the proverbial “damsel in distress,” trussed to the train tracks or otherwise waiting to be saved. Elodie is neither of those in Netflix’s pleasantly disruptive fantasy story, which places “Enola Holmes” star Millie Bobby Brown squarely in control of her fate.

A revisionist fairy tale in which Elodie is hastily married off and served up as dragon chow to satisfy a generations-old curse, “Damsel” treats Elodie as an action hero for our less gender-rigid times. The loud-and-clear message, achieved by eliminating “distress” from the title (though it’s still an essential part of the formula): Passive damsels be damned! Here’s a woman who can fend for herself!

The eldest daughter of one Lord Bayford (Ray Winstone...

Already watched Part I of The Crown Season 6 and thought, ‘What to watch until Part II premieres?’ like this writer did? Wonder no more because there are plenty of British royal family-related TV shows and movies streaming right now. They range from documentaries and musicals to comedies — something for everyone — until Part II of The Crown drops on Dec. 16, 2023.

1. What to watch until ‘The Crown’ Season 6 Part II premieres: ‘Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy’

An oldie but a goodie in the world of royal family streaming content is this 2017 documentary. Featuring interviews with Princess Diana’s sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, the now-estranged brothers discuss their late mother while flipping through family photo albums together.

The 68-minute documentary includes many personal stories from the Duke of Sussex and Prince of Wales. Diana’s enduring legacy, wicked sense of humor, divorce from King Charles III, and last phone...

Steve Carell will make his Broadway debut this spring as Vanya in a new adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya.

Carell will star alongside William Jackson Harper as Astrov, Jayne Houdyshell as Mama Voinitski, Mia Katigbak as Marina, Alfred Molina as Alexander Serabryakov, Alison Pill as Sonya and Anika Noni Rose as Yelena.

The adaptation, penned by Heidi Schreck and directed by Lila Neugebauer, is scheduled to begin previews at the Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater on April 2, 2024, and open on April 24.

The classic play sees Sonya (Pill) and her uncle Vanya (Carell) living on a family farm in isolation, only to have their lives upended by Sonya’s sick father (Alfred Molina) and his wife (Anika Noni Rose), who move in with them.

Uncle Vanya will feature sets by Mimi Lien, costumes by Kaye Voyce, lighting by Lap Chi Chu and Elizabeth Harper, and sound by Mikhail Fiksel and Beth Lake.

Stars: Olga Kurylenko, Clive Standen, Lilibet Butanaseva, Litiana Butanaseva, Nick Moran, Lucy Martin, Peter Franzen, Dominique Vandenberg, Rita Tushingham | Written and Directed by Jesse V. Johnson

Writer/director Jesse V. Johnson opens his latest film, Boudica, on an impressive note. Roman soldiers march through a dark, fog-enshrouded, forest. It’s creepy and ominous as if something unseen is waiting for them. And there is, a group of Druids who kneel, chanting in a clearing. The warrior goddess they hoped to summon doesn’t save them and the legion graphically slaughters them.

Meanwhile, in Britania’s Icini Province, Prasutagus rules alongside his queen, Boudica. Despite having to deal with the Roman occupiers life is good for them and their daughters Bre (Lilibet Butanaseva) and Aife (Litiana Butanaseva; On the Morning You Wake (to the End of the World), The Bay of Silence, The Wheel of Time, Kiddyzuzaa).

That is until Prasutagus...

Stars: Woody Norman, Lizzy Caplan, Antony Starr, Cleopatra Coleman | Written by Chris Thomas Devlin | Directed by Samuel Bodin

Cobweb begins a week before Halloween when Peter is woken up by the sound of knocking seemingly coming from inside his bedroom wall. You can’t blame him for being creeped out, with its peeling paint and backyard full of rotting pumpkins the house already looks like something out of a horror movie. And then there’s that weird bulging thing the walls in his room do while he’s sleeping.

We also quickly learn that he has no friends and gets bullied at school. His parents Carol and Mark also won’t let him dress up for Halloween, something that may be related to the disappearance of a young girl a few years ago. Unsurprisingly they also don’t believe him about the knocking.

Writer Chris Thomas Devlin, whose only other...

If you’re looking for game that puts a twist on the traditional “save the princess” trope, Black Tabby Games’ Slay The Princess is now available on Steam for you to do just that. The visual novel has the added incentive of being on sale with a 10% discount from now until November 2nd.

Slay The Princess finds you in the middle of a densely-populated forest, with the trees parting only for you to make way to a small hill adorned by a lone cabin. The Narrator (voiced by Jonathan Sims of The Magnus Archives) asks you the simple eponymous instruction: enter the cabin and slay the princess. If you don’t, the world ends. At least, that’s what you’re told.

Obviously, the princess (voiced by Nichole Goodnight) has other plans, and none of them include dying. She will do and say anything to free herself. Will you do...

Last month’s nomination process for the Player’s Choice Horror Game Award for The Horror Games Awards 2023 is over and done, and now it’s time for you, the fans, to vote. Will Penkeyman of Resident Evil Central posted the lineup earlier today, with 30 titles vying to move on to the next round of voting. Players and fans can voice their choice via the official site of The Horror Game Awards.

Of the 30 games nominated, the 15 most popular games voted by you will proceed to the next round of voting. Round 1 ends October 20th, with two more rounds after that to narrow down the eventual winner.

And in case you’re wondering, those on the list are the top 30 nominated by a public vote, as long as they’re either an ongoing game or have a release later this year.

Here are the nominees for Round 1:

Afterdream Alan...

The long-awaited animated series Tiana is still in the works at Disney+, but now we finally have an update.

The show — which was originally announced in 2020 and is now set to hit the streamer some time next year — has announced Joyce Sherri as its lead writer and director, our sister site Variety first reported. Sherri was a staff writer on Mike Flanagan’s Netflix horror miniseries Midnight Mass, and has also written and directed short films such as Beauty, Forever, Down, Down, Baby and The Family Romance.

More from TVLineThe Spiderwick Chronicles Series Relocates From Disney+ to RokuTVLine Items: Snow White's 4K Makeover,...

Sharpen your sword and show us your war face because Saban Films‘s Boudica: Queen of War trailer is soaking the soil with blood as battle cries echo throughout the plains. In Boudica: Queen of War, Olga Kurylenko plays a mother whose life is stolen when high-ranking members of the Roman Empire storm her lands, slay her family, and brand her a nobody in the eyes of the aristocracy. Unfortunately for the Roman Empire, the people still see Kurylenko’s character as their queen and would follow her onto any battlefield without question. Given the name Boudica by her loyal subjects, the would-be queen inspires her followers to take up arms in the name of freedom from the Roman Empire. What follows is a bloodbath of epic proportions as rage leads to a plan to topple the corrupt Romans and their overlords.

Jesse V. Johnson directs from his own script,...

Select Disney movies are making the jump from the screen to the Disney Parks in the coming years. 

At the 2023 Destination D23 event, Disney announced a whole line-up of new theme park experiences, including three attractions based on Disney movies and bound for the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. 

This news followed Disney's beginning work on its The Princess and the Frog Splash Mountain retheming and the recent opening of Tron Lightcycle Run, based on 2010's Tron: Legacy.

Read full article on The Direct.

Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:

Oscars | Emmys | Grammys | Tonys

2023 Emmy Predictions:

Outstanding Television Movie

Weekly Commentary: It’s a “weird” season, but there have been pleasant surprises.

“Prey,” the Predator prequel, which was filmed in the Stoney Nakoda First Nation west of Calgary nabbed six inspired nominations including outstanding television movie, directing and writing. And while Indigenous Peoples...

Charlotte Tilbury is making Disney lovers’ beauty dreams come true with her latest limited-edition collection.

To celebrate her beauty brand’s 10-year anniversary and the House of Mouse’s centennial, the Hollywood-loved makeup artist is sprinkling glamorous fairy dust on some of her top glow-giving products. Bestsellers such as the 50-milliliter Magic Cream ($100) and Beauty Light Wand highlighters (from $42) feature Peter Pan’s Tinker Bell on the packaging, and the whimsical Beauty Wishes makeup bag ($48) in Tilbury’s signature crimson shade features the iconic pixie embellished in crystals.

Three highlighter shades (Spotlight, Pink and Gold) are finished with the fictional fairy, and the collection includes exclusive skincare and cheek sets ($80-$191). Makeup mavens can also collect commemorative rose-gold pins with the purchase of any Charlotte Tilbury x Disney100 item (use code Disneypin), with a new design released weekly through Aug. 14 on the website or until Aug. 28 on the brand’s app.

Michael Cera Image: Warner Bros. Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling may get top billing in Barbie, but they’re surrounded by a fantastic ensemble of supporting players who embody different versions of Barbie and Ken in the fantasy world of Barbieland. Some of them—Issa Rae, Kate McKinnon, and Simu...

Stars: Woody Norman, Lizzy Caplan, Antony Starr, Cleopatra Coleman | Written by Chris Thomas Devlin | Directed by Samuel Bodin

Cobweb begins a week before Halloween when Peter is woken up by the sound of knocking seemingly coming from inside his bedroom wall. You can’t blame him for being creeped out, with its peeling paint and backyard full of rotting pumpkins the house already looks like something out of a horror movie. And then there’s that weird bulging thing the walls in his room do while he’s sleeping.

We also quickly learn that he has no friends and gets bullied at school. His parents Carol and Mark also won’t let him dress up for Halloween, something that may be related to the disappearance of a young girl a few years ago. Unsurprisingly they also don’t believe him about the knocking.

Writer Chris Thomas Devlin, whose only other...

Screenshot: Hulu

The seasonal sci-fi favorite Independence Day, the award-winning Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, and the recent theatrical release The Bob’s Burgers Movie are just three of the many notable movies premiering on the Hulu streaming service in July. There’s also the fantasy-action-comedy The Princess (pictured), an original Hulu film starring Joey King,...

After Disney unceremoniously removed dozens of titles from Disney+ and Hulu at the end of May, the company on Friday recorded via an SEC filing a “$1.5 billion impairment charge in its fiscal third quarter financial statements to adjust the carrying value of these content assets to fair value.”

And that might not be the end of it – according to the same filing the company could incur charges up to $400 million “related to produced content.”

To explain: On May 26, Disney removed dozens of titles from direct-to-consumer streaming platforms Disney+ (including movies like “Stargirl” and “Wolfgang” and original series like “Willow” and “The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers”) and Hulu. It was a baffling move given how closely connected many of the series and movies were to already-established Disney IP, making them an odd fit to shop to other streamers or linear platforms. And it was a move that blindsided a lot of...

In what has become a grim reality of the next phase of the streaming era, 60 movies and television shows have left Disney+ and Hulu. That includes Sundance crowdpleasers like “Timmy Failure,” initially-intended for theatrical releases like “Artemis Fowl” and “The Once and Future Ivan,” big-budget IP adaptations like “Willow” and “Y: The Last Man,” and high-concept YA dramedies like “Stargirl” and “Rosaline.” Once such casualty is “The Princess.”

Released in August of 2022, the original high-concept hybrid of “Die Hard” and “The Raid” features Joey King (star of “The Kissing Booth” trilogy) as a princess trapped in a tower having to fight and kill her way floor-by-floor to save herself and her family from a violent coup attempt. It’s the kind of clever genre exercise that might have been a theatrical release a generation ago. Had it been given a theatrical release, however token, it would also have been available on DVD,...

Stars: Rico Verhoeven, Marie Dompnier, Peter Franzén, Frank Grillo, Roland Møller, Rona-Lee Shimon, Pippi Casey, Magnus Samuelsson, Simon Wan | Written by Tad Daggerhart | Directed by Todor Chapkanov

I was set to cover Black Lotus when it was released in the UK a month from now when, to my surprise, a friend announced it was our movie watch for the weekend. It seems it was released over here with pretty much zero publicity, which is never a good sign. But his enthusiasm “It’s got Frank Grillo and a seven-foot Mma fighter!” won me over. And since I was going to be watching it now, I figured I might as well write it up now as well.

Armed men have taken the German National Opera hostage and are demanding a three hundred million ransom. Three hundred million what is never mentioned but be it dollars, euros, or marks, they want three hundred million of them.

Over at Disney+, nearly everything developed under former CEO Bob Chapek is out, including dozens of movies and TV shows that are being pulled from the streamer.

“Willow,” “The World According to Jeff Goldblum” and “The Mysterious Benedict Society.” Also, say goodbye to Disney+ Originals movies, including “The Princess” with Joey King and “The One and Only Ivan” with Bryan Cranston, as well as “Wolfgang,” a documentary about celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck.

And even content that debuted earlier this year, such as “Marvel’s Voices Rising: The Music of Wakanda Forever,” will be gone soon.

At press time, Disney had not yet decided whether to yank “Howard,” a doc about the Oscar-winning lyricist behind ’90s classics “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Little Mermaid.”

Here’s what’s being pulled from the service on May 26.

America the Beautiful (2022)

Among the Stars (2021)

Be Our Chef (2020)...

Disney did a little (late) spring cleaning of its streaming services this week, removing several properties from Disney+ and Hulu. Among those that will go on May 26 include some high profile recent shows like “Willow,” “Y: The Last Man,” “Dollface,” and “The World According to Jeff Goldblum.” What makes this troubling for many home viewers who may have been fans (or even stans!) of the affected programs is that, in most cases, there are no Blu-ray/DVD options. In the old days you could always hit record on your Vcr to build a personal library, but it’s not so easy to capture material from streaming—and the whole point of streaming is not needing to do that, right?

As per The Verge, Disney’s cost-cutting is due to a reduction in Disney+ subscribers, to the tune of 4 million in 2023. While the company will have to pay a “content impairment charge” of over $1.5 billion,...

For Halloween 2021, Disney+ entered the world of R.L. Stine with “Just Beyond,” an 8-episode anthology series based on Stine’s line of comic books. The series never got a second season, with Disney+ leaving its fate hanging in the balance these past two years.

Unfortunately, we’ve learned this week that Stine’s “Just Beyond” will be one of many Disney+ original projects that are soon being deleted from the streaming service entirely.

As The Hollywood Reporter explains, “Disney is following Warner Bros. Discovery and removing under-performing titles from its streaming services in a bid to write off nearly $2 billion from its bottom line. In all, there are more than 30 shows that will be removed starting next week from the platforms in this first round of reductions. The titles will vanish starting May 26.”

The long list of titles being removed from Disney+ includes…

America the Beautiful Among the Stars Artemis Fowl...

Update, July 4: Another victim of Disney’s cost-cutting on the streaming front has emerged: “Crater,” a sci-fi adventure film about a group of children that hijack a rover before a member of the group relocates to a new planet. The film, starring Mckenna Grace and Isaiah Russell-Bailey with a featured role played by Kid Cudi, drew mostly positive reviews around its debut on the streaming service on May 12. Roughly seven weeks later, “Crater” has been pulled from Disney+.

The original report follows.

Disney’s content culling from Disney+ and Hulu is coming as early as next week — with the media company pulling off more than 50 titles, including series “Willow,” “The Mysterious Benedict Society” and “Dollface,” and movies such as “The One and Only Ivan.”

At the same time, CEO Bob Iger told investors last week that the company expects to raise the price on the ad-free Disney+ tier later...

As expected, Disney is following Warner Bros. Discovery and removing under-performing titles from its streaming services in a bid to write off nearly $2 billion from its bottom line.

Scripted titles set to be removed from Hulu and Disney+ include FX’s Y: The Last Man, Pistol, Little Demon, Hulu-turned-Disney+ series Mysterious Benedict Society, Disney+’s Big Shot, The Mighty Ducks, Turner & Hooch, Willow and ABC-turned-Hulu comedy Maggie, as well as National Geographic’s The World According to Jeff Goldblum. In all, there are more than 30 shows that will be removed starting next week from the platforms in this first round of reductions. The titles, many of which are listed below, will vanish starting May 26. Sources say the programming could be made available elsewhere, like digital sell-through platforms, etc.

Disney CFO Christine McCarthy revealed last week on Disney’s earnings call that the company would be reviewing the TV series...

Updated with more titles being removed: Disney is starting to pull content from streaming, with dozens of series and specials slated to leave Disney+ and Hulu on May 26, Deadline has learned. The titles, which are being removed from Disney’s streaming services globally, include Disney+’s Willow, Big Shot, Turner & Hooch, The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, Just Beyond, Diary of a Future President, The Mysterious Benedict Society and The World According to Jeff Goldblum and Hulu’s Y: The Last Man, Dollface, The Hot Zone, Maggie, Pistol and Little Demon. A number of Freeform series also are slated to leave Hulu.

The list features largely short-lived series, specials and direct-to-streaming movies.

The move, which comes with a content impairment charge of $1.5 billion to $1.8 billion, was announced during the recent Disney earnings call on May 10.

“We are in the process of reviewing the content on our Dtc services to align...

Are you ready for a Summer of Screams?

Our Summer 2023 Horror Preview is here! The 2023 slate of horror releases looks packed. Tentpole titles like The Boogeyman, Insidious: The Red Door, Talk to Me, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, and more aim to set the box office ablaze. And that’s all nothing compared to the volume of genre offerings heading to streaming, Digital, and VOD.

There’s enough horror here to keep us busy until the Halloween season. It’s a densely packed slate this summer, and trust us: this is only the tip of the iceberg for what’s ahead.

Here’s what is coming soon to help you prepare!

The Ancestral – May 2 (Screambox)

This haunter hails from the director of Furie and The Princess, Le-Van Kiet. And it’s Now Streaming on Screambox.

In the film, “After suffering a family tragedy, a widower moves his two daughters to a centuries-old ancestral home.

It’s a brand new month, which means new titles have arrived on various streaming platforms. This month brings the potential for hidden gems in the form of international titles, obscure horror darlings, and new releases to your favorite streaming platforms.

Here are ten noteworthy horror titles available for streaming in May 2023 on some of the most popular streaming services, along with when/where you can watch them.

The Ancestral – Screambox

This haunter hails from the director of Furie and The Princess, Le-Van Kiet. In the film: “After suffering a family tragedy, a widower moves his two daughters to a centuries-old ancestral home. When both daughters fall prey to sleep paralysis and night terrors, their father seeks the help of a local psychologist. These chilling secrets and frightening visions eventually prove that not everything is what it seems in the old family house.”

Livid – Shudder

Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo...

"You saw it, too, didn't you?" Screambox has revealed an official US trailer for a Vietnamese supernatural horror film titled The Ancestral, arriving for streaming next week. It's the latest feature from renowned filmmaker Le-Van Kiet, who also directed the action hit Furie, shark movie The Requin, and Joey King's action movie The Princess. A Vietnamese family moves into a centuries-old ancestral home, only to discover sinister secrets and visions in the old family's ancient crypt. A haunting twist on sleep paralysis and trauma, the film held the top spot at the box office in Vietnam upon release last year. "Horror films that take place in the home, like The Ancestral, are a different level of unsettling, and I'm thrilled to share this terrifying film with our Screambox viewers," Bloody Disgusting's Brad Miska explains. Starring Lâm Thanh Mỹ, Quang Tuấn, Mai Cát Vi, and Dieu Nhi. This looks like...

In "Furie," Veronica Ngô stars as an ex-gangster in a desperate situation. "Furies" takes Ngô from in front of the camera and puts her in the director's chair of the action-heavy prequel headed to Netflix. An early 2000s vibe about seedy gangland colorfulness nods to an adrenaline junkie wave that birthed titles such as "Smokin' Aces" or "Shoot 'Em Up," which isn't a complaint. Ngô orchestrates a sleaze-filled yet feminine action brawler that flips the script on once prevalent subgenre gender norms, unfazed — better yet, empowered — by the task. The hyper-intensive style favorably reminds of "Sin City" minus black and white, or even as recently as "Bullet Train," how Saigon becomes drenched in neons like Nicolas Winding Refn's got a hold of lighting rigs.

Ngô also plays Jaqueline, the gracious leader of an underground assassin squad composed of girls who've endured unspeakable abuse under male-dominated societal norms. Bi (played...

We all love Ngô Thanh Vân, better known in the West by her professional name, Veronica Ngô. First introduced to savvy genre film fans in the ‘00s through her kickass collaborations with Johnny Tri Nguyen in The Rebel (Dòng máu anh hung) and Clash, Ngô has continued to make inroads in the outside of her Vietnamese home market with appearances in films like The Last Jedi, The Old Guard, and The Princess. She is a confirmed ass-kicker, with fighting skills that rival any big-time action star of the last two decades. Four years ago, she starred in director Le-Van Kiet’s Furie, at this year’s SXSW she takes...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Exclusive: UTA has signed Derek Kolstad — the writer-producer best known for architecting the John Wick and Nobody action franchises — for representation in all areas.

Following Keanu Reeves‘ retired hitman on his descent back into the criminal underworld, the John Wick franchise created for Lionsgate by Kolstad launched with a 2014 film of the same name, which built to a pair of sequels released in 2017 and 2019. The trio of critically acclaimed action-thrillers have grossed over $585 million worldwide, with each netting more than the last, and a fourth chapter coming up for release on March 24.

Kolstad wrote the first two John Wick films and co-wrote the third, with his work also spurring two other anticipated projects: the limited series The Continental from Lionsgate/Peacock and the female-driven spin-off Ballerina led by 2023 Oscar nom Ana de Armas. He wrote on and exec produced the former project, centered on a younger version of Ian McShane...

The Critics Choice Association (Cca) announced today the nominees for the 3rd Annual Critics Choice Super Awards, honoring the most popular, fan-obsessed genres across both television and movies, including Superhero, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Horror, and Action. Winners will be revealed via press release on Thursday, March 16. “The Batman” leads this year’s film nominees, earning six nominations including Best Superhero Movie. Robert Pattinson, Paul Dano, and Colin Farrell each received nods for Best Actor in a Superhero Movie, while Zoë Kravitz is up for Best Actress in a Superhero Movie. Paul Dano could also take home the award for Best Villain in a Movie. “Evil,” “House of the Dragon,” “The Boys,” and “What We Do in the Shadows” tied for the most television nominations, with each project garnering four nods. “Evil” and “What We Do in the Shadows” were both nominated for Best Horror Series, while “House of the Dragon...

The Batman leads the nominations for the third annual Critics Choice Super Awards, which honor “the most popular, fan-obsessed genres” across film and TV, including superhero, sci-fi/fantasy, horror and action projects.

Matt Reeves’ film landed six noms, including best superhero movie. In addition, several castmembers are up for nods: Robert Pattinson, Paul Dano and Colin Farrell will vie for best actor in a superhero movie; Zoë Kravitz is nominated for best actress in a superhero movie; and Dano is also up for best movie villain.

The Batman will compete with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, DC League of Super-Pets, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder for best superhero movie.

Other acting noms across the various film categories went to Tom Cruise for Top Gun: Maverick, Viola Davis for The Woman King, Nicolas Cage for The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Angela Bassett and Letitia Wright...

It’s the new year, and there are a lot of new shows and films coming to Amazon Prime Video, including the Jennifer Lopez-led comedy “Shotgun Wedding” and Season 2 of the platform’s animated fantasy series “The Legend of Vox Machina.”

If you’re not in the gym working on those New Year’s resolutions, you can go on an comedic adventure with Prime Video’s “Shotgun Wedding,” which stars Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel who play a couple that attempts to wrangle their family members together for an ultimate designation wedding. However, things take a dark turn when the couple starts to get cold feet, and the entire wedding ends up being held hostage. The film drops on Prime Video Jan. 27.

As for shows, “Hunters” returns Jan. 13 with its second and final season. The series follows a group of skilled Nazi hunters who are on a mission to...

Plot: When the local mafia shows up to burn down her restaurant, Ana, a chef with a meticulous past, defends her turf and proves her knife skills both in and out of the kitchen.

Review: Given the premise, I’m sure High Heat will get some immediate comparisons to John Wick. I guess that’s just a given for any movie that features a former assassin trying to live a new life, only to be brought back in. But I actually found the film more akin to A Long Kiss Goodnight with Geena Davis.

I really enjoyed the almost James Bond-style credit sequence, complete with a 60’s animation style. But as much as I liked that, it almost felt like a bit of a lie. This is no spy thriller, and we don’t even get much of a history of those spy days. Instead, High Heat feels like a lesson in stubbornness.

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Art

1341 Frames of Love and War (Yes Docu)

In celebrating the work of acclaimed Israeli war photographer Micha Bar-Am, director Ran Tal’s 1341 Frames of Love and War offers a meditation on photography, political violence and identity through an exclusive (and exhaustive) deep dive into Bar-Am’s expansive artistic archives over the past five decades.

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Neon)

Laura Poitras (an Oscar winner for 2014’s Citizenfour) directs this portrait of renowned photographer Nan Goldin, one that offers intimate access to her suburban upbringing and experiences living among marginalized communities and artistic scenes in New York City. It also depicts the downfall of the Sackler family, a target of Goldin’s activism and whose company Purdue Pharma created and marketed OxyContin — the root cause of the American opioid epidemic.

Art & Krimes by Krimes (MTV Documentary Films)

While serving a six-year prison sentence for drug possession,...

There are six UK productions and four UK co-productions in the line-up.

The UK is well represented in the 2023 edition of Utah-based festival Sundance, with debut features including Girl, Scrapper, Rye Lane and documentary Is There Anybody Out There? joining the line-up, which was announced in full yesterday (December 7). Five of the UK filmmakers selected are Screen Stars of Tomorrow.

This year’s festival takes place as a hybrid event, running from January 19-29 as an in-person event, with a selection of films available online from January 24-29.

Six UK productions and four UK co-productions have made the 99-strong line-up...

In anticipation of the kick-off of the first round of Oscars voting on December 12, the academy released the titles of the features that were deemed eligible to compete in three categories: animated, documentary and international.

This voting only runs for four days, with the shortlists in 10 categories released on Dec. 21. The nominations in these, and the other 13 categories, will be revealed on Jan. 24, 2023. The 95th Academy Awards are March 12, 2023.

Animated Feature (27 entries)

Voting on this award is restricted to academy members from any branch who volunteer to be on the screening committee and attest to having watched their assigned entries. Members rank their top five choices and a multi-step system of counting winnows the various contenders down to the final five nominees.

“Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood”

“The Bad Guys”

“The Bob’s Burgers Movie”

“Charlotte”

“DC League of Super-Pets”

“Drifting Home”

“Eternal Spring”

“Goodbye, Don Glees!”

“Guillermo del Toro...