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Emile Hirsch, Justin Long (Barbarian, Goosebumps), and Kevin Connolly (Entourage) are set to star in Connolly’s horror film ‘Lice.’

Connolly’s ActionPark Productions, alongside partner Patrick Marino, are making their feature film debut with a gruesome throwback to ‘80s high school classics. Production begins this week in Canada.

The movie is described as a horror mashup of ‘The Breakfast Club’ and ‘Lord of the Flies,’ and follows a deadly parasite outbreak at a Long Island high school in the 1980s. When the school goes under military lockdown, the itch-crazed students turn on each other in a desperate struggle to survive.

Also in news – Elizabeth Olsen set for vampire thriller ‘Flesh of the Gods’

Hirsch will star as burned-out science teacher Mr. Shanker, who finds new purpose as he investigates the bloodthirsty mites, Justin Long as Principal Van, a man who is out of his depth and soon out of his mind,...

The films of Disney, Pixar, and a cult-classic anthology film were brought up as defining pieces of animation when Gold Derby assembled artists behind three animated programs that are eyeing to score Emmy nominations next month. The types of stories they want to see told through animation and what episodes they might want to submit for Emmy consideration were also topics of discussion for our Meet the Experts: TV Animation panel. The panelists were #1 Happy Family USA cocreator and star Ramy Youssef, Secret Level creator Tim Miller, and Arcane writer Amanda Overton.

Watch the full roundtable panel above. Click each person's name to watch an individual interview.

Overton remembers loving The Little Mermaid when that came out but had a huge revelation when she saw Beauty and the Beast and how the film added 3D elements to its 2D animation style. “When they started doing those, they just felt so...

First debuting in the pages of Shōnen Jump magazine in 1998, Hunter x Hunter has gone on to sell over 84 million copies worldwide, cementing its place among the best-selling manga of all time. Created by Yoshihiro Togashi, the series has inspired two hit anime adaptations and a dedicated global fanbase. While newer shōnen series like Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen dominate headlines, Hunter x Hunter remains a beloved and influential classic that all fans of the shōnen drama should experience.

Now, Hunter x Hunter is about to become more accessible to viewers than ever before. Pluto TV just rolled out its biggest free anime refresh yet, adding over 800 hours of content and more than 120 movies as part of its Ani-May event. This week, through Sunday, May 18, viewers will be able to catch a nonstop Hunter x Hunter marathon on the Anime All Day channel, following Gon and Killua through their most thrilling adventures.

Crunchyroll isn't the only streaming service celebrating "Ani-May" this month. Pluto TV is honoring the month-long event with 800 hours of free anime, headlined by the upcoming marathon of Hunter x Hunter.

Pluto TV, the ad-supported free streaming service, is celebrating all things anime this May with numerous marathons of popular anime TV series and movies. This monumental celebration includes 800 hours of free anime programming and over 120 anime movies. This week, anime fans will have 24/7 access to Shonen Jump's Hunter x Hunter on Pluto TV’s Anime All Day channel. The marathon will continue until Sunday, May 18, 2025.

Pluto TV’s ‘Ani-May’ Event Includes Free Streaming of Hunter X Hunter, Naruto, Bleach & More

Below are the complete May 2025 listings of Pluto TV's Ani-May event. Highlights include marathons of the original 2002 Naruto anime TV series, the supernatural cat-and-mouse thriller Death Note, and a movie marathon based on the 2004 Bleach anime series.

Anime All Day

Monday,...

Paramount’s free streaming service, Pluto TV, has revealed its May highlights. The Pluto TV May 2025 lineup includes anime marathons, babysitter mishaps, and movie nights so good you might forget to leave the couch.

Pluto TV is kicking off Ani-May with a revamped collection that includes brand-new anime channels, fan-favorite marathons, and over 800 hours of fresh content to dive into. The service is also celebrating National Babysitter’s Day on May 10 with the Pluto TV debut of Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead (2024).

And if you’re in the mood for a movie marathon (or three), the service has got you covered. Stream epic favorites like Gladiator, Boogie Nights, Hellboy, A Few Good Men, The Faculty, Zero Dark Thirty, Only the Brave, and more, all for free, all month long.

Pluto TV is the leading free streaming television service, delivering hundreds of live, linear channels and thousands of titles...

This month, Pluto TV decided to cater to... well, every anime fan in the world. The free streaming service announced a huge slate of anime content that is going to debut on the platform. The lineup amounts to over 800 hours of content and includes titles like One Piece, Hunter x Hunter, Naruto, and Bleach. The streamer starts rolling out the new content this week.

Pluto TV is dubbing the event "Ani-May" and calling it its "most extensive content refresh ever." It kicks off with the launch of three new channels: Anime x Hdive, Pluto TV Anime Comedy, and an InuYasha channel that will air content of the franchise 24/7. Later this month, Pluto TV is adding two more channels: Pluto TV Anime Movies, which will be exclusive to feature-length content from high-profile titles like the Naruto Shippuden movies, Bleach: Hellverse, and the Hunter x Hunter movies. Last but not least, the...

At first, “Havoc” sounds like just another one of those generic, one-word titles Hollywood slaps on action movies to convey a terse, efficient shoot-’em-up. Why give such projects a long-winded name like “A Clear and Present Danger” or “Every Which Way but Loose” when you can find something punchy like “Taken,” “Crank” or “Drive”? Look it up in the dictionary, however, and “havoc” doesn’t simply mean “devastation” (of which there is plenty in “The Raid” director Gareth Evans’ excessively violent Netflix outing), but also some mix of confusion, mayhem and all-around disorder (which spoils whatever fun a couple over-the-top set-pieces deliver).

Looking worse for wear than Bruce Willis’ tank top at the end of “Die Hard,” Tom Hardy fully commits to the walking stereotype that is Walker, the least bad cop working Christmas Eve in a city that a) doesn’t exist, b) seems to be modeled on...

Although Speed Racer was a box-office failure upon its release over 15 years ago, the film has grown a passionate cult following, with some even calling it an underrated masterpiece. With its kaleidoscope explosion of colours, Speed Racer is just begging for a release on 4K Ultra HD, but co-director Lilly Wachowski told Collider that it doesn’t seem to be in the cards.

“The ‘Speed Racer’ fanbase is so rabid that they’re constantly at-ing me on social media and so I actually looked into whether or not Warner Bros. had plans to release ‘Speed Racer’ in 4K,” she said, “and that was a few years ago, and they don’t see the fan base that’s out there for something like that, which is unfortunate. And Warner Bros. is also…who knows what’s going on there. You gotta get at the head of the company.“

Speed Racer was...

For a franchise that only has one movie adaptation, released almost 20 years ago, Speed Racer has managed to retain an impressive and passionate fan base. The cult following that the film earned over the years would make you think that the Lana and Lilly Wachowski (The Matrix) movie would've earned at least one or two commemorative editions over the years, but that's hardly the case. In a new interview with Collider, Lilly Wachowski spoke about the possibility of the movie getting a 4K Uhd release, but the news is discouraging at best.

During an interview for her upcoming conversation at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures for The Matrix trilogy, Wachowski told Collider's Steve Weintraub that she actually took it upon herself to look into Warner Bros.' re-release because of how vocal the Speed Racer community is. The problem is, this kind of decision is out of her hands and,...

Today, anime has truly moved from a niche interest to a worldwide cultural phenomenon many would boldly pronounce mainstream. What was a relatively obscure hobby only 15 years ago now stands as a cornerstone of pop culture. Today, anime merch fills store shelves, Western pop icons openly talk about their love for anime, and most people have at least heard of the most popular anime series, if they haven't also watched them.

However, anime’s journey to mainstream success in America has not been smooth sailing. The path to bringing anime to the West began in the '60s, and its widespread acceptance took decades of exposure. Nowadays, anime might be beloved and easily accessible to curious viewers and die-hard fans across the globe, yet that would never have been the case without the contribution of older anime shows paving the way for the medium in America.

Astro Boy Was the...

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David Zaslav may just be the single worst movie studio head in the entire 100+ years-long history of cinema, worse than the alleged old studio heads that allegedly worked with the mob and allegedly had actors (like George Reeves) killed, worse than Thomas Edison and his hobby of suing everyone else who tried making movies. Indeed, the current head of what we currently know as Warner Bros. Discovery has been on a crusade to seemingly get rid of everything related to legacy entertainment, from Turner Classic Movies to Cartoon Network.

His latest move was to delete the entire 1930-1969 run of "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies" shorts that were available on Max. All of it. Over 200 cartoons are gone. This, of course, isn't the first time Zaslav has had it for the beloved cartoon characters. Like a real-life Judge Doom, Zaslav...

Dynamite Entertainment started the Space Ghost run back in early 2024 and I was on the fence about picking it up. I enjoyed Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, but not quite as much as the original Hanna-Barbera cartoon (and the two are vastly different). However, my appreciation of writer David Pepose (The Devil That Wears My Face and Moon Knight: City Of The Dead) was enough for me to give it a shot. 11 issues later, I'm more sure than ever that starting the series was a great decision.

Space Ghost creative team:

Writer: David PeposeArtist: Jonathan LauColors: Andrew DalhouseLetterer: Taylor Esposito

Space Ghost has a ton of intergalactic action and violence mixed in with emotional moments between Space Ghost, Jan, Jace, and even their monkey, Blip. And just when you think things can’t hit you in the heart harder, you’re proven wrong. That leads us to the most recent issues,...

Hollywood is a marketing game, which means that public images of actors and other creatives are paramount. Morality clauses are an integral part of any contract that is signed between production companies and actors, giving the company (and the industry) the right to remove the actor and disengage with them.

Shia Labeouf in The Peanut Butter Falcon || Credit: Roadside Attraction

A lot of times, this is leveled at A-list actors, whose fall from grace is quick and decisive, but more often than not, it also plagues actors who are on the path to becoming big names in Hollywood. When they do get canceled, they are all over the news for a few short months and then disappear off of the face of the earth. These four actors faced something similar, being on the rise in the industry with some pretty great films. However, their path to A-list stardom was stalled...

.Detective and mystery series remain some of the most underrated of the anime genres. Certain anime detectives are widely known for their massive intellect and deductive skills. These individuals, like Ranpo Edogawa, can solve crimes within minutes of learning about them. This makes Ranpo a perfect candidate to deduce the true nature of Kira's crimes.

Many of the most popular anime detectives are absolute geniuses. Many of the most interesting, like Yakumo Saito, have abilities that would directly counter Kira. Saito specifically can communicate with the dead, which would allow Saito to learn about the Shinigami at the very least. Overall, here are several talented detectives who, under the right conditions, could've caught Kira before the end of the first episode.

Oreki Houtarou from Hyouka Has Superior Deductive Skills Even Though He Doubts Them Streaming on Crunchyroll

Oreki Houtarou complies with his sister's wishes and ends up joining his High School's Classic Literature Club.

Anime dubbing has evolved a lot in the last 30 years. Localization has gotten a lot better, along with the translations and script writing, which means the dubbing has also gotten more advanced as time has gone on. This is a really good thing, as the days of Speed Racer are long passed. Anime dubbing has also had a mixed reputation for a very, very long time, despite the many strides that have been made in that arena. In fact, many dub artists in anime these days are celebrities in their own right, coming out to the screams of adoring fans at conventions across the world.

There is something fun about having a recognizable celebrity pop up in anime. Playing the "wait, I know that voice!" game with one's friends can be a lot of fun, and sliding down that IMDb rabbit hole can be more than a little gratifying. Hollywood...

The past decade has made anime streaming more popular than ever, with many streaming platforms coming out on top in the race to host the next hit. Netflix is still the biggest name in the game when it comes to streaming as a whole, while the Crunchyroll streaming service is the premiere home for anime specifically. While these host some great anime, one shopping network's streaming service has its own fair share of the medium's greats.

Amazon Prime Video is one of the most underrated destinations for anime streaming, especially since it hits so many targets for different demographics. From various retro anime gems to newer favorites, Prime Video is a great place to build up a must-watch anime backlog. Add in the fact that it's connected to the biggest online commerce hub, and it's a one-stop shop for anime fans looking to stream and collect.

Amazon Prime Video Has...

Quick LinksMakoto Shinkai's Your Name is a Modern Masterpiece of AnimeJJ Abrams' Planned Your Name Remake Has Already Gone Through 3 Different DirectorsMovies Like Your Name Are Probably Better Off Not Getting Remade

Although Hayao Miyazaki may be the world's leading figure in Japanese anime films, thanks to his widely recognized and beloved work from Studio Ghibli, other anime directors such as Makoto Shinkai have gained more and more recognition from Western audiences within the last decade. Despite being unfairly overlooked by the Academy, Shinkai’s 2016 film Your Name has been considered to be one of the best animated films of the century, ranking at number 83 on IMDb’s Top 250. It's a visual and thematic masterpiece of animation, which is why it’s so shocking that J.J. Abrams is currently feeling the need to remake it in live-action for American audiences. Abrams has accomplished quite a bit throughout his career as a producer and director,...

The upcoming crime comedy filmThe Comeback Trail is set to hit theaters and VOD, boasting an ensemble cast of Hollywood heavyweights.

The film features an all-star cast, including Goodfellas' Robert De Niro, and Morgan Freeman. Scrubs actor Zach Braff, who also stars in The Comeback Trail, shared the release announcement on his Instagram account, expressing his excitement for the film’s debut. He also shared how much fun he had working alongside the film's all-star iconic cast. The Comeback Trail is set to hit theaters and VOD on February 21, 2025. The movie originally had its world premiere in 2020 and was slated for a release in U.S. theaters that year, but it was pulled from the schedule. It was released in the UK in 2021.

View this post on InstagramA post shared by Zach Braff (@zachbraff)

Related'Two Different Sides of the Same Coin': Robert De Niro Reveals What Compelled Him to Star...

The cast of “Yellowjackets” is a sprawling one, with different actors portraying the main characters in both the 1996 timeline, when the team’s plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness, and in the present.

Season 2 introduced us to Lauren Ambrose as adult Van, Simone Kessell as adult Lottie and Elijah Wood as Walter. In Season 3, we’ll meet characters played by Hilary Swank, Joel McHale and Ashley Sutton.

Here are all the key characters and who plays them in which timeline.

Spoilers up through the Season 2 finale.

Photo credit: Showtime

Sophie Nélisse as Teen Shauna, Melanie Lynskey as Adult Shauna

Before the crash, teenage Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) was best friends with Jackie (Ella Purnell), but was secretly pregnant by Jackie’s boyfriend Jeff. In the wilderness, their eventual fall-out led to Jackie freezing to death outside the cabin. In Season 2, Shauna gave birth, but the baby was stillborn.

Adult Shauna (Melanie...

Emile Hirsch has signed on to supernatural thriller The Condemnation that Luminosity Pictures is introducing to EFM buyers this week.

Peruvian-American filmmaker Catherine Pirotta will direct the story from her screenplay about an aspiring journalist on an investigative assignment by a prestigious newspaper to travel to Peru to write a story about Casa Matusita, one of the world’s most famous haunted houses.

Notorious for ghost sightings, murders, suicides and an infamous massacre, the house becomes a temporary home for the journalist and his wife. However as as they settle in, strange and terrifying events unfold which lead them to...

Emile Hirsch is set to star in supernatural thriller The Condemnation from writer-director Catherine Pirotta. Luminosity Pictures is launching sales on the title, which will begin production in April, at the upcoming European Film Market.

The story follows an aspiring journalist (Hirsch) who’s given an investigative assignment by a prestigious newspaper to travel to Peru and write a story about Casa Matusita, one of the world’s most famous haunted houses.

Notorious for ghost sightings, murders, suicides and an infamous massacre, the house becomes a temporary home for the journalist and his wife. But as the couple settle in, strange and terrifying events unfold which lead them to seek the help of a local priest who has a dark history with the house.

Luminosity president Daniel Diamond produces with Brad Epstein and Farouk Hadef.

Peruvian-American filmmaker Pirotta writes and directs. Her previous feature El Plebeyo will be released theatrically later this year.

As more and more time passes, retro anime continues to fall out of the public eye. Anime that were once the pinnacle of their time fall into obscurity. However, this doesn't need to be the end of such anime. All it would take to return them to popularity is a proper remake, perhaps even one by Studio Ghibli.

Although the studio typically creates their own works, they're no stranger to creating films for other franchises. One of their earliest works is Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro, bringing the gentleman thief Lupin more attention as he steals the audience's hearts. Studio Ghibli could revitalize other retro anime with a movie, if that was something they chose to do.

Speed Racer's Main Character Would Make a Great Studio Ghibli Hero Streaming on Amazon Prime

Speed Racer was a racing anime that first aired in 1967 and 1968. The series follows protagonist Go Mifune,...

Ariel Winter has earned a fair name for herself in the entertainment industry and is regarded as a talented actress in Hollywood. But as amicable, loving, and caring as she may come across in real life, the 26-year-old actress’s life has also been marred with some really unfortunate and traumatic turn of events.

Ariel Winter. | Credits: @arielwinter / Ig.

For one, while the actress seems to be spending a pretty happy and cheerful life now with the people she loves and those who love her, Winter has had not-so-good ties with her mother since her childhood. Among the many reasons behind this, one of the most surprising ones is that her estranged mother reportedly didn’t allow her to have female friends in her childhood.

Ariel Winter reportedly didn’t have any female friends because of her mother Ariel Winter as Alex Dunphy. | Credits: Modern Family / ABC.

While her performance as the intelligent,...

Anime is one of the most celebrated art forms in the world, with a history stretching back more than 100 years and a significant international cultural legacy dating back to the 1960s. After the legendary cartoonist Osamu Tezuka created the template that most anime would base itself on with the classic Astro Boy, the form exploded into a juggernaut that continues to dominate film and television.

One of the oldest and most venerated anime series of all time is Speed Racer, becoming one of the first series to be successfully imported into America. When the legendary American directors the Wachowski sisters were able to adapt the classic anime Speed Racer into a live-action film, audiences were stunned by how faithful the adaptation was to the original source material.

The Wachowski Sisters Understand How to Adapt Anime

After decades of living in development hell, Lana and Lilly Wachowski teamed up with producer Joel Silver,...

Some of the best films of the last few years have been adaptations of books, novels and non-fiction works, and they take a certain degree of artistic liberty with the source material in order to tell a more captivating story that fits the big screen. Movies like the Dune films, Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon and The Last Duel reinterpret the original text in order to make something excellent and unique.

The Wachowski Sisters, two of the most underrated and overhated directors in decades, have been known to bend previous source material in interesting ways, as they did with the screenplay for V for Vendetta or with the live-action adaptation of Speed Racer. But their greatest piece of adaptation came when they teamed up with German filmmaker Tom Tykwer to adapt David Mitchell's award-winning novel Cloud Atlas. The three of them, who wrote and directed the movie together,...

J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings franchise has been a widespread name across the world, and the franchise has decided to ride on the trend of getting itself an anime adaptation. By collaborating with New Line Cinema studios and bringing together an alluring cast featuring Brian Cox, Luke Pasqualino, Gaia Wise, and many more names, they started working on the anime title the Lotr: The War of the Rohirrim.

The poster for the Lotr: The War of the Rohirrim. Credits: Warner Bros. Animation

Though the idea sounds nice and intriguing, where it features bewitching animation with tons of action, it had a steep drop in the voice acting section. The problem was so grim that Cox, the actor behind the voice of Helm Hammerhead, expressed his dissatisfaction with the subpar quality that hindered the anime adaptation from recreating the success of the live-action films.

Brian Cox voices his...

After The Matrix (1999) and V For Vendetta (2005), the Wachowskis were ready to turn from darkness into the bright, bright candy-colored light. The result was Speed Racer (2008), an eyepopping postmodern explosion that honored the gravity-defying spirit of old-school anime…and which audiences couldn’t quite figure out.Host Rico Gagliano talks with Speed Racer star Roger Allam (The Thick of It), legendary special-effects artist John Gaeta (The Matrix), and others about how the movie was made, why it tanked, and why a growing army of acolytes start their days by watching its final action sequence.The latest season of the Mubi Podcast, Box Office Poison, dives into six visionary films...that were also notorious flops. Inspired by the new book of the same name by Tim Robey, film critic for The Telegraph, each episode takes a wild ride through a great movie’s rise, fall, and rise.Listen to episode six...

Every decade delivers wonderful, popular anime for fans to remember, and with the benefit of hindsight, fans can pick out which series are the greatest of each decade. The 2000s had the original shonen "big three", along with Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, so that leaves the question of what anime from the 2010s and 2020s have reached those heights. Both decades have been excellent for anime, launching a variety of series that will surely be counted among the best someday.

Fans like to call their favorite series the Goat, or "Greatest Of All Time" for the layperson, and it's a high honor that not every anime can get. In fact, any gallery of Goat anime is a highly selective club, so only the anime with the best story, sharpest production values, and deepest themes may qualify. While the jury's still out on a few recent anime, fans are still confident that in due time,...

J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot has closed a new first-look film and TV deal with Warner Bros. Television, with the pact expected to be non-exclusive and last for two years, two people familiar with the matter tell TheWrap.

It follows the previous 2019 pact between the two parties, a five-year overall deal that was more expensive. Projects released under that deal included Prime Video’s “Caped Crusader,” Apple TV+’s “Presumed Innocent,” HBO’s “Charlie Hustle & The Matter of Pete Rose” and “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tape” and the documentary “Yankees Win.”

Representatives for Bad Robot and Warner Bros. TV declined to comment.

The latest agreement comes after overall deal volume and their price tags have dropped following the Hollywood strikes and belt-tightening at the major media giants.

Looking ahead, Bad Robot’s projects include Max’s “Duster” and other shows in the works including “Speed Racer.” On the film side,...

J.J. Abrams’ production firm, Bad Robot, has signed a new first-look deal with Warner Bros. This arrangement extends a nearly 20-year cooperation and responds strategically to the shifting landscape of the entertainment business.

The two-year non-exclusive pact replaces a five-year exclusive agreement for around $250 million that expired earlier this year. This new contract comes at a time when the entertainment industry is experiencing significant shifts, with fewer overall deals and more flexible arrangements for producers.

Bad Robot has shown tenacity in adapting to these developments. This summer, the company debuted popular ventures like the Prime Video series “Caped Crusader” and Apple TV+’s “Presumed Innocent.” The latter swiftly became the platform’s most popular drama launch and has already been extended for a second season. Bad Robot also released three documentaries: “Charlie Hustle & The Matter of Pete Rose,” “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes,” and “Yankees Win.”

Looking ahead,...

The tenure of J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot at Warner Bros. Television will hit the 20-year mark. After months of negotiations, the company has closed a new film and TV deal with Warner Bros., sources tell Deadline. The pact is believed to be two-year, first-look, non-exclusive in both areas.

It succeeds Bad Robot’s previous big five-year exclusive deal, signed in 2019 at the height of the Peak TV-fueled overall deal bubble. That $250M agreement was among a number of big-ticket items that came under scrutiny following the April 2022 close of the Warner. Bros.-Discovery merger when HBO pulled the plug on Abrams’ sci-fi drama Demimonde.

Ultimately, Bad Robot’s deal proceeded, and the company saw a couple of new series get on the air this summer, Caped Crusader, which launched on Prime Video, and David E. Kelley’s Presumed Innocent for Apple TV+, which started as a limited series...

A 2009 martial arts movie produced by the Wachowskis is performing well during its run on streaming. The Wachowskis made their directorial debut with the crime thriller Bound in 1996, after penning the screenplay for 1995 Sylvester Stallone movie Assassins. But the siblings shot to global fame when they wrote and directed the 1999 science fiction action film The Matrix starring Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne, and Hugo Weaving. The movie was met with widespread critical acclaim, and is considered a modern classic, as well as one of the greatest and most influential science-fiction films ever made.

Following the unexpected success of The Matrix, the duo wrote and directed The Matrix Reloaded, and The Matrix Revolutions (both 2003), as well as expanding The Matrix franchise in the realm of video games and animation. Branching out from the series, they also wrote dystopian action movie V For Vendetta, as well as making sports action-comedy Speed Racer,...

The legacy sequel has become one of the most profitable and prolific sub-genres in recent movie history, banking on audience nostalgia and a perfect screenplay to add to the lore of a classic franchise. The best legacy sequels provide a measure of closure or a deepening of the themes of the original work, adding something to a beloved film rather than detracting from what made the first entries so special. Films like Blade Runner 2049, Mad Max: Fury Road and Creed deepen the meaning of the original film while adding their own characters and stylistic flair that help them stand on their own.

The Matrix Resurrections was unsuccessful upon its release at the end of 2021, bombing at the box office when put up against the much more crowd-pleasingly nostalgic Spider-Man: No Way Home. The film also left many critics and audience members who did see it perplexed, assuming that the...

Dragon Ball has earned itself the status of a global cultural mainstay, and one promo just proved its legacy forever. It comes at a great time for the series. 2024 has seen the debut of the new series Dragon Ball Daima, which is getting nothing but a warm reception. Dragon Ball is generating more buzz than it has in years, and for shnen's most influential franchise, that's saying a lot.

The franchise is often unfairly relegated to the status of a nostalgic relic whose age outwears its influence, but 2024 has shown Dragon Ball to be alive and well. It's being capped off with the promo of a lifetime: a popular sports website has pitted Goku against an unlikely foe in a mutual ode between anime and soccer. It's a milestone moment for anime's relationship with soccer, but it's far from the whole story.

Dragon Ball Has Reached The Zenith Of Promotional...

Just because a movie gets a negative reception, doesn't mean it remains that way years after its release. Typically, a movie's negative response will be a part of its legacy for many years. However, that is not always the case, as there have been specific movies that have bounced back from being ridiculed. While the critical scores remain unchanged, the audiences' opinions can dramatically alter, paving the way for dedicated followings.

With time on their side, these once-disliked movies have gone through plenty of reevaluations to the point where many viewers have changed their thoughts about them. There can be many reasons why people's views about these films have differed over time, including nostalgia, newfound franchise appreciation, stellar special effects, and well-aged themes. Between Spider-Man 3, Speed Racer, and the Star Wars prequel trilogy, these modern movies found new love among viewers.

More People Have Defended Andrew Garfield in The...

Alex Boden, producer of Max/Wowow series “Tokyo Vice,” outlined the hurdles and triumphs of filming the first U.S. studio streamer series shot entirely in Japan during a keynote at the Tokyo International Film Festival. The keynote was delivered as part of a Motion Picture Association event at the festival.

Created by J.T. Rogers and starring Ken Watanabe, Ansel Elgort, Rachel Keller and Kikuchi Rinko, the series followed a Western journalist working for a publication in Tokyo who takes on one of the city’s most powerful crime bosses.

Boden spent nearly two years in Japan producing both seasons of “Tokyo Vice.” Before production began in 2020, several international producers had advised against shooting entirely in Japan, citing lack of incentives, studio availability and complex permission processes.

“They’d gone to other countries like New Zealand for ‘The Last Samurai,’ Germany for ‘Speed Racer,’ Taiwan for ‘Silence’ – anywhere else but Japan,...

With its body horror “The Substance” performing well at the box office, a rerelease of Tarsem Singh’s “The Fall” currently underway, and a successful streaming channel offering artful cinema from around the world, you’d think the fine folks at Mubi might slow down and smell the roses, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Returning for its seventh season, Mubi is announcing a new installment of its award-winning audio-documentary series, “Mubi Podcast.” This new batch of episodes is inspired by film critic Tim Robey’s soon-to-be-published book, “Box Office Poison: Hollywood’s Story in a Century of Flops.”

Highlighting films such as “Sylvia Scarlett” (1935), “Sorcerer” (1977), and “Speed Racer” (2008), Robey’s book uncovers the history behind some of the entertainment industry’s biggest flops, contrasting their initial failure with the eventual acclaim they’d garner over time. Over six episodes, “Mubi Podcast” host Rico Gagliano will use this material as a guide,...

It's been nearly a decade and a half since the TV phenomenon known as Lost came to its conclusion, and even though not all the show's cast members have managed to maintain that same level of brightness in the spotlight that the show had once allowed them, some have gotten extremely lucky. When fans think of the show's most successful cast members, names like Evangeline Lily and Daniel Dae Kim are sure to come to mind. However, even though Matthew Fox has taken an extended hiatus from acting, it's impossible to deny that he, too, has certainly had one of the most successful post-series finale careers. While his acquired film credits are small, they've been pretty impressive, from We Are Marshall to Speed Racer. It's Bone Tomahawk (the last major film he appeared in), however, that has become arguably his most popular one.

With the American Western having made an...

A few notable celebrities’ passing has left Hollywood mourning. The year 2024 saw the passing of many stars who have touched the lives of millions with their talents and personas. The departure of these icons has left their fans worldwide grieving. Here are 5 notable stars we lost this year.

1. Maggie Smith

There’s no denying that the sudden passing of Maggie Smith left a void in the hearts of her fans. With two Oscars, four Emmys, and a Tony award to her name, Dame Maggie Smith, who was 89 at the time, died in the hospital on 27th September 2024, as reported by the BBC.

Maggie Smith | Credits: Alamy/Carnival Films/Album

Smith played the role of the strict but fair Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter films. This role gained her fans worldwide. Smith had dedicated her life to acting and had the gift of acting from childhood. In the mid-1950s,...

Lana and Lilly Wachowski used to work as a filmmaking duo, bringing us the likes of Bound, The Matrix and its first two sequels, Speed Racer, Cloud Atlas, and Jupiter Ascending, while also scripting the likes of V for Vendetta and Assassins, plus creating the TV series Sense8. In recent years, they have been focusing on separate projects, with Lana making The Matrix Resurrections solo while Lilly has been working on the Showtime series Work in Progress and a movie called Trash Mountain. Now, during an interview with Autostraddle, Lilly has revealed that she has several other projects in the works, including an adaptation of the horror novel Manhunt.

Lilly Wachowski said, “I have my fingers in a lot of different projects. Some of the projects are big, some of the projects are small, but they’re all queer and trans. I’ve just written a script with my partner...

While Diane’s got her hands full with all the courtroom drama on General Hospital, Carolyn Hennesy also has a lot going on, although not as dramatic as her alter ego. In a recent Instagram post, she hinted at a new project she’s currently working on for Hallmark, which they haven’t even publicly announced yet. She also shared details of her fun trip to the set.

Hallmark + Utah + Christmas = Perfect Setting

On Instagram, Hennesy wrote, “For the past seven days, I have found myself in Midway, Utah. Hallmark tapped me for a…wait for it…Christmas romance entitled Deck The Walls, written by the wonderful Danny Pellegrino.” Although it’s not winter yet, she theorized that there would be many fun things to be had in beautiful Utah. She elaborated, “Not yet time for skiing or snowboarding, and I don’t fish” (Learn about other soap stars who...

Hiroyuki Sanada has won his first Emmy. On Sunday he took home the award for Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his role in FX drama series Shōgun, on which he also serves as a producer.

“It was an East-West dream project with respect,” he said while accepting the award, “and Shōgun taught me that when people work together we can make miracles. We can create a better future together.”

In the epic drama series from FX based on James Clavell’s 1975 novel, veteran Japanese actor Sanada stars as Lord Toranaga, the ultimate strategist, whose intricate web ultimately served to unify 17th century Japan. Tadanobu Asano also stars as Lord Kashigi Yabushige, Anna Sawai as Toda Mariko and Cosmo Jarvis as shipwrecked Portuguese explorer John Blackthorne, known as ‘Anjin’.

Related: Jodie Foster Thanks Indigenous People For Sharing Their Stories With ‘True Detective: Night Country’ In Her First Ever Emmy...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Film at Lincoln Center

An essential retrospective of Brazil’s L.C. Barreto Productions begins.

Roxy Cinema

Another Woman and The Lords of Flatbush play on 35mm.

Museum of the Moving Image

A retrospective of the Tibetan filmmaker Pema Tseden begins; The Gleaners and I plays on Saturday; Speed Racer shows on Sunday.

Anthology Film Archives

An honestly titled retrospective, “Essential/Unessential Warhol,” begins.

Film Forum

A Spielberg retrospective begins, featuring E.T. on 35mm; Army of Shadows continues and West Side Story plays on Sunday.

Museum of Modern Art

“Paramount in the 1970s” includes films by Warren Beatty, Elaine May, and Peter Bogdanovich.

IFC Center

Rosemary’s Baby and a 40th-anniversary restoration of Paris, Texas play daily; Caligula: The Ultimate Cut and The Conversation continue; Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, Hostel, The Goonies, Mute Witness, and The Vanishing play late.

Metrograph

The Seventh Seal,...

It was 2021 and most film festivals, big or small, were in an online only model. Perhaps due to its late summer sweet spot, The Toronto International Film festival managed a soft-hybrid, with a significantly reduced number of films, some of them at drive-ins or at un ultra low cinema capacity.  Because there were only a few Midnight Madness movies at that year's festival, Mm programmer and Speed Racer superfan Peter Kuplowsky, rented the pandemic-shuttered Royal Cinema for the nights where there were no midnight screenings. He brought in the Racer Trash collective, a diverse bunch of film editors who remixed, mashed up, and outright demolished, pop cinema and cultural ephemera, and showcased them on the Twitch streaming platform. According to a The Verge piece at the...

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

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research

My screening series Amnesiascope partners again with Rohmer Fits for an encore presentation of Éric Rohmer shorts on Sunday.

Paris Theater

“Big & Loud!” returns with 70mm prints of Vertigo, Phantom Thread, and Boogie Nights, along with The Abyss, Close Encounters, and films by Don Hertzfeldt.

Bam

The controversial, remarkable The Spook Who Sat By the Door continues in a new restoration.

Roxy Cinema

Amalia Ulman has programmed prints of If… and The Holy Girl; “Explosive Cinema” offers First Reformed and The Battle of Algiers.

Film at Lincoln Center

As an essential restoration of Shinji Somai’s Moving continues, The Stranger and the Fog begins a run.

Museum of the Moving Image

Speed Racer and A Silent Voice have screenings.

Anthology Film Archives

Films by Buñuel, Chaplin, and Cocteau screen in “Essential Cinema“; Funeral Parade of Roses shows this Friday.

The Madison has added another acclaimed actor to its cast. Lost alum Matthew Fox has joined the Yellowstone spinoff series formerly known as 2024 in a series regular role.

Per Variety, Fox will play Paul, described as "a self-reliant bachelor who loves the outdoors." Fox is perhaps best known for playing Dr. Jack Shephard in all six seasons of Lost, receiving both an Emmy and Golden Globe nomination for his time on the ABC series. The actor's other credits include the series Party of Five, Last Light, and Caught, and the films We Are Marshall, Speed Racer, Alex Cross, World War Z, and Bone Tomahawk.

Related 'Just Incredibly Fortunate': Yellowstone Star Wraps Filming, Shares Final Set Photos

Yellowstone star Wendy Moniz reveals that she has wrapped filming on the fan-favorite Paramount Network show for the final time.

Who Else Has Been Cast in The Madison?

Fox will appear in The Madison...

“The Madison” found its second lead in Matthew Fox. The actor best known for his work in “Lost” will star alongside Michelle Pfeiffer in the upcoming Taylor Sheridan drama, which will serve as a spinoff to “Yellowstone.”

Fox will play Paul, who is described as “a self-reliant bachelor who loves the outdoors.” He will join a cast that includes Michelle Pfeiffer, Patrick J. Adams, Elle Chapman, Beau Garrett and Amiah Miller.

Fox became a household favorite for his role as Dr. Jack Shepard in J.J. Abrams’ massive hit, “Lost.” For that role, he won the 2005 SAG Ensemble Award and was nominated for the Golden Globe and Emmy for Outstanding Leading Man in a Drama Series. The actor has also starred in “Speed Racer,” “We Are Marshall” and “Emperor.” On the television side, Fox starred in and executive produced the limited series “Last Light” for Peacock and starred in the...

Matthew Fox is the latest addition to the cast of the “Yellowstone” spinoff “The Madison,” Variety has confirmed.

Fox will appear in the series alongside previously announced cast members Michelle Pfeiffer, Patrick J. Adams, Elle Chapman, and Beau Garrett.

“The Madison” was previously in development under the title “2024.” Per the official logline, the show is a “heartfelt study of grief and human connection following a New York City family in the Madison River valley of central Montana.” It is not yet clear if the show will debut exclusively on Paramount+ or start off on Paramount Network like “Yellowstone.”

Fox will play Paul, described as “self-reliant bachelor who loves the outdoors.”

Fox is best known for his starring role in the ABC series “Lost,” on which he played Dr. Jack Shephard throughout the show’s six season run. He received both an Emmy and Golden Globe nomination for his time on the show.

The tenure of J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot at Warner Bros. Television is expected to cross the 20-year mark. The company is in advanced negotiations with Warner Bros. to re-up its film and TV deal with the studio, sources tell Deadline.

The pending multi-year extension comes more than two years after Bad Robot’s current massive five-year pact experienced serious turbulence at the half point following the April 2022 close of the Warner. Bros.-Discovery merger when it was among a number of big-ticket items scrutinized by the new regime. At that time, HBO pulled the plug on Abrams’ sci-fi drama Demimonde before production was slated to start on the ambitious — and expensive — series.

The rough post-merger period included a handful of other greenlighted Bad Robot series not going forward at Warner Bros. Discovery streamer Max, including The Shining offshoot series Overlook and the animated Batman: Caped Crusader.

Ultimately, Bad...

There's something special about the rush of being right when everyone around you is wrong. Granted, judging film is supposed to be subjective, but there's still such a thing as a consensus, and you can fall into the majority or the minority opinion. Rarely does the reception to a film completely flip from one extreme to the other over time, but when it does happen, it's a momentous occasion. Back when they were a dynamic duo, Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel found themselves ahead of the curve on Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, a film that was initially found to be repellent and disgusting by both critics and audiences, but is now considered a high point of director Sam Peckinpah's career.