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In Gladiator II, all is not well in the world’s largest military superpower. We couldn’t possibly comment…

How often do you think about the fall of Rome?

Trot over to Bluesky, Threads or any of the other social media giants growing out of Twitter’s corpse at the moment, and you’ll find plenty of people with it at the front of their minds. “It’s the end of an empire,” one Bluesky user says, “but at least the content is tremendous”.

It’s appropriate, then, that Gladiator II arrives in UK cinemas this week. Big, violent, and with blockbuster spectacle shimmering from every frame, ‘content’ doesn’t get much more tremendous, or more Roman, than this.

But just as the decade following 9/11 saw Hollywood grappling with America’s newfound paranoia, Ridley Scott’s latest epic (the script for which was completed in 2021) finds what will undoubtedly prove...

So, you’ve watched The Dictator and discovered—or maybe rediscovered—your love for the absurdity and outlandishness of Sacha Baron Cohen. The British actor and comedian has a savvy set of satirical skills up his sleeve that he often sets loose in the real world. These encounters with unsuspecting people, however, reveal far more than just laughs. Cohen, when his methods work, is able to expose hidden biases, prejudices, and sometimes the bizarre underbelly of society.

Sacha Baron Cohen (L) and Ben Kingsley (R) in The Dictator | Credits: Paramount Pictures

If The Dictator’s lampooning on the absurdity of authoritarianism left you chuckling at its brazen wit, here’s a list of Sacha Baron Cohen’s other films that will keep you entertained, surprised, and sometimes even moved.

1. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)

No point in pushing this one down the list.

The Good Shepherd are delighted to announce that legendary singer/songwriter Robert Plant Cbe has become a patron of the Wolverhampton-based charity.

Robert Plant Becomes Good Shepherd Patron

The rock icon has been a long-time supporter of the work of the Good Shepherd, but has now stepped up his backing to become a patron, including supporting the creation of a new trainee scheme offering two paid trainee roles within the organisation for people with lived experience of homelessness and other issues.

These trainees have both been participants on the Good Shepherd’s Leap programme and these roles – embedded to support service users accessing the charity – form a key part of their recovery journey.

Robert has taken a keen interest in the long-standing Wolverhampton charity for many years, and invited representatives to have a presence at his concert at The Halls last December to raise awareness of their work, providing food...

Rustin is a biographical drama film directed by George C. Wolfe, from a screenplay by Julian Breece and Dustin Lance Black. The Netflix film is based on the life of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, who helped Martin Luther King Jr. and others organize the 1963 March on Washington. The film shows us how history erased him from the civil rights movement he helped build just because an openly gay Black man. Rustin stars Colman Domingo in the lead role of Bayard Rustin, with Chris Rock, Jeffrey Wright, Aml Ameen, Lilli Kay, and Johnny Ramey starring in supporting roles. So, if you loved the Netflix film here are some similar movies you could watch next.

Selma Credit – Paramount Pictures

Synopsis: Selma is the story of a movement. The film chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition.

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is a legal war drama film written and directed by William Friedkin. The Showtime film is based on Herman Wouk‘s 1952 play named The Caine Mutiny, which was based on Wouk’s book of the same name. The film revolves around a trial against a naval officer who is accused of mutiny. The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial stars Kiefer Sutherland, Jason Clarke, and Jake Lacy. So, if you love the film here are some similar shows you could watch next.

A Few Good Men (AMC+ & Prime Video Add-On) Credit – Columbia Pictures

Synopsis: Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore star in Rob Reiner’s unanimously acclaimed drama about the dangerous difference between following orders and following one’s conscience. Cruise stars as a brash Navy lawyer who’s teamed with a gung-ho litigator (Moore) in a politically explosive murder case. Charged with defending two Marines accused of killing a fellow soldier,...

Richard Riordan, the two-term Los Angeles mayor who helped rebuild the city in the wake of the Rodney King riots in 1992 and the devastating Northridge earthquake two years later, has died. He was 92.

Riordan died Wednesday at his home in Brentwood, his daughter Patricia Riordan Torrey announced.

A venture capitalist and moderate Republican, Riordan served as mayor from 1993 — succeeding the retiring Tom Bradley and winning his first election ever — until 2001, when term limits ended his run. He defeated legislator Tom Hayden, former husband of Jane Fonda, to be re-elected.

Riordan also was mayor during the 1994-95 O.J. Simpson criminal murder trial that riveted L.A. and the world.

“Mayor Richard Riordan loved Los Angeles and devoted so much of himself to bettering our city,” Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement. “He always had a place in his heart for the children of L.A. and worked to improve how...

Movie star John Wayne had strong feelings regarding the Vietnam War. Some actors steered clear of making their political beliefs public to avoid alienating moviegoing audiences. However, Wayne and Oscar-winner Jane Fonda stood up for what they thought was right. The Western actor criticized Fonda and her husband, who she called an “idiot,” for their criticisms of the Vietnam War.

John Wayne rallied his support for the Vietnam War John Wayne | Screen Archives/Getty Images

Wayne became synonymous with the image of nationalism within America. He’s frequently criticized for not serving during World War II during the draft, which many of his peers did. This forever put a stain on his hero image, which he then felt that he needed to rectify. As a result, Wayne thought that he served in another way with the feature films that he made that boosted the image of the U.S. military and its citizens.

Imagine an on-the-road concert documentary shot in the anything-goes days of 1970 — a hurly-burly vérité jamboree like “Mad Dogs & Englishmen” or “Elvis on Tour.” It’s about the biggest rock band in the world. It encompasses 11 shows in 26 days, with headlines and controversies and a film crew to capture it all. We see the band members backstage, on planes, in their nightly lodgings, and onstage. The crowds are rapturous.

“What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears?” is, in a way, that movie. The band that’s on tour, the mighty but fraught Blood, Sweat & Tears, was full of great musicians who most people didn’t know by name. Yet as fronted by the intoxicating huskiness of lead singer David Clayton-Thomas, they emerged from the embers of the counterculture to become one of the first true supergroups. By the time their 1970 tour arrived, Blood, Sweat & Tears were the most popular rock band in America,...

Jane Fonda has been involved in a few celebrity relationships during her lifetime. However, she doesn’t feel the need to have a special someone in her life. The 80 for Brady actor says she’s content with the way things are because she has a “drawer full of vibrators.”

How many times was Jane Fonda married? Jane Fonda | Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images

Fonda is part of the Hollywood group that has been married several times. The On Golden Pond actor has been married three times. She married her first husband, Roger Vadim, in 1965. They later divorced in 1973. She was married to her second husband, Tom Hayden, from 1973 to 1990. Fonda married her third husband, CNN founder Ted Turner, in 1991. They divorced in 2001.

As of this writing, Fonda is not married. Right now, she says her focus is on her friends. “My current and next love are my girlfriends. I have great girlfriends,...

Jane Fonda once thought her life was on the line during a harmful period at the beginning of her career.

When the actress was in her twenties, she began to suffer from an eating disorder.

“I led a secret life. I was very, very unhappy. I assumed I wouldn’t live past 30,” Fonda said during her interview on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast on Wednesday. In true Fonda fashion, the Hollywood icon joked that she doesn’t “understand” how she’s now in her eighties.

The “Grace and Frankie” star then explained that her “secret life” consisted of basically being a home body- she had a nonexistent dating life and never went out, which made her “unhappy.”

Read More: Jane Fonda Says She Didn’t Have Any Women Friends Until Her 30s: ‘I Saw Women As Weak’

“And then I was also making movies that I didn’t very much like,...

Click here to read the full article.

The 2022 Zurich Film Festival is honoring Fantastic Beasts star Eddie Redmayne with its Golden Eye award for lifetime acheivement.

The British actor will receive the honor in person in Zurich on September 25 ahead of the European premiere of Tobias Lindholm’s The Good Nurse. Redmayne stars in the Netflix thriller, alongside Jessica Chastain, as a nurse who poses a deadly threat to his patients. He will also participate in a Zff Masters session while at the festival.

Arguably best known as Newt Scamander from Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter spin-off franchise Fantastic Beasts, Redmayne’s career stretches across multiple genres, from Hollywood blockbusters to independent arthouse projects. He won the Oscar for Best Actor playing physicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything (2014), was 60s political activist Tom Hayden in Aaron Sorkin The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020),and sung his heart out as...

Jane Fonda is undergoing chemotherapy after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

“This is a very treatable cancer,” Fonda writes today on an Instagram post. “80 of people survive, so I feel very lucky.”

In the lengthy post – read it below – Fonda reveals that she’ll undergo chemo treatments for six months, and that she is “handling the treatments quite well and, believe me, I will not let any of this interfere with my climate activism.”

The two-time Oscar winner (1971’s Klute and ’78’s Coming Home), Emmy winner and co-star with Lily Tomlin of Netflix’s long-running hit Grace and Frankie writes in the post that cancer “is a teacher and I’m paying attention to the lessons it holds for me. One thing it’s shown me already is the importance of community. Of growing and deepening one’s community so that we are not alone. And the cancer,...

Exclusive: It’s been more than 40 years, but filmmaker Robert Greenwald remembers the call that came in from a man on the run. The caller, one of America’s most famous fugitives, used an assumed name.

“Robert, it’s Barry,” the man said in a gravelly voice. It wasn’t long before Greenwald discerned he was speaking with Abbie Hoffman, the “radical” leftist whose conviction in the celebrated Chicago Seven trial had been vacated. But a pending drug charge had prompted Hoffman to go on the lam.

“He would never say ‘Abbie’ [on the phone] because he was underground and assumed all the phones were tapped,” Greenwald recalls. “But I figured out pretty quickly that ‘Barry’ was Abbie.”

After that initial call Greenwald and Hoffman got to know each other and met up on occasion, in less than clandestine circumstances. Sometimes the setting was Venice Beach, not in a darkened café, but out in the sunshine,...

Back in 1968, the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary got into trouble with the Bishop of Los Angeles. Rather than submit to the authority of the Catholic Church, these women, who took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience when they married Jesus Christ, fought for their autonomy as educators at Immaculate Heart College and defied the powerful patriarchy that tried to keep them in their place. The nuns had more college degrees than the priests who sought to dominate them, branding them as blasphemers.

During the turbulent upheavals of the anti-war and feminist movements, the rebel nuns fought for their college, freedom, equality, and their own livelihoods. They joined the movements protesting for social justice, earned support from political activists like Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden, and won their independence from the Catholic Church. The Immaculate Heart community survives to this day.

Documentary editor-turned-filmmaker Pedro Kos (“Bending the Arc”) artfully blends animation,...

Back in 1968, the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary got into trouble with the Bishop of Los Angeles. Rather than submit to the authority of the Catholic Church, these women, who took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience when they married Jesus Christ, fought for their autonomy as educators at Immaculate Heart College and defied the powerful patriarchy that tried to keep them in their place. The nuns had more college degrees than the priests who sought to dominate them, branding them as blasphemers.

During the turbulent upheavals of the anti-war and feminist movements, the rebel nuns fought for their college, freedom, equality, and their own livelihoods. They joined the movements protesting for social justice, earned support from political activists like Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden, and won their independence from the Catholic Church. The Immaculate Heart community survives to this day.

Documentary editor-turned-filmmaker Pedro Kos (“Bending the Arc”) artfully blends animation,...

When people look back at 2020, it’s going to be hard to think of an entertainer who played more of a central role to the year than Sacha Baron Cohen. In addition to becoming an outspoken agitator against the dangers that modern social media presents, Cohen was a part of two of the year’s most talked about films. One marked with the return of his Kazakh reporter character, Borat, in a sequel to his 2006 box office hit. The other saw him portraying 1960s radical Abbie Hoffman in Aaron Sorkin’s, “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” He reaped Oscar bids for both, contending for the adapted screenplay of “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” and as Best Supporting Actor for “Trial.”

His competition in the acting race is: Leslie Odom, Jr. (“One Night in Miami…”), Paul Raci (“Sound of Metal”), Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield (both for “Judas and the Black Messiah...

Aaron Sorkin had a massive job ahead of him when researching the screenplay for his second directorial effort, “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” Back in 2007 when the project was to be directed by Steven Spielberg, Sorkin begin plowing through tens of thousands of pages of the official trial transcript to first get the facts down, then applied his character-writing skill to shape his script into a crowd-pleasing movie, the result of which has garnered Sorkin an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

Sorkin’s screenplay for “Chicago 7” will battle with it out with scripts for Emerald Fennell‘s genre-bending “Promising Young Woman,” Lee Isaac Chung‘s family remembrance “Minari,” Will Berson and Shaka King‘s historical biopic “Judas and the Black Messiah” and the drama “Sound of Metal” written by Darius Marder and his brother Abraham Marder.

SEEAaron Sorkin interview: ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ director-writer

The...

This season’s editing race features five Best Picture nominees with very visceral stories: Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland” (serving as her own editor), Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” Darius Marder’s “Sound of Metal,” Florian Zeller’s “The Father,” and Emerald Fennel’s “Promising Young Woman.” However, “The Trial of the Chicago 7″ is now the favorite, bolstered by its Ace Eddie win.

Editor Alan Baumgarten had the most ambitious editorial task: balancing three story threads in “Rashomon”-like fashion with multiple perspectives and jumping back and forth in time, from the overheated courtroom drama to the violent, vérité-like riots during the ’68 Democratic Convention to the bitter political rivalry between Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne) and Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen). Plus, Baumgarten oversaw a sprawling six-minute prologue that was like lighting a fuse with historical context and character introductions.

Yet “Sound of Metal” poses the biggest threat...

With just eight days to go before the Academy Awards, “The Trial of the Chicago 7” took the top prize at the Ace Eddie Awards, winning Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic), for acclaimed editor Alan Baumgarten Matthew Friedman and Andrew Dickler won Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy) for “Palm Springs,” which did not receive any nominations for the 93rd Oscars, unlike “The Trial of the Chicago 7” with its six. But in two other categories, the likely Oscar winners gained steam: “Soul” won Best Edited Animated Feature Film and “My Octopus Teacher” Best Edited Documentary (Feature), solidifying both of those films as the frontrunners in the Oscars’ Animated Feature and Documentary Feature categories.

On the TV front, “Schitt’s Creek,” which won’t even be eligible for Emmy consideration this year following its series finale in early 2020, won Best Edited Comedy Series for Commercial Television, with “Ted Lasso” winning in the Comedy category for Non-Commercial Television.

Narratively speaking, Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7” stands apart from the rest of the Best Picture and Original Script nominees for its scope and multi-layered approach. The fact-based drama balances three story threads in a “Rashomon” fashion: the overheated courtroom drama, how the peaceful demonstrations turned violent during the ’68 Democratic Convention in Chicago, and the bitter political rivalry between Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne) and Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen).

That’s a lot of history and conflict to pack into 130 minutes, which is why Sorkin cleverly wrote a sprawling 12-page prologue to set up the whole movie, calling for archival footage, tricky tonal shifts, and jumping back and forth in time. And the six and a half-minute sequence (view below) proved quite the challenge and opportunity for Oscar-nominated Alan Baumgarten to edit. “It serves several purposes,” he said. “It provides a bit of a history lesson,...

It took writer and director Aaron Sorkin fourteen years after the initial meeting with Steven Spielberg at his house on a Saturday back in 2006 to finally get “The Trial of the Chicago 7” made. And according to Sorkin, it finally came together thanks to former president Donald Trump.

“I don’t want to give Donald Trump credit for anything, but he’s the one who got Chicago seven made,” Sorkin tells moderator Jimmie Briggs at The Wrap’s screening series of the film. “Because he would have these protests, he would have these rallies, and there would be protesters at the rallies, and he would start getting nostalgic about the old days when they ‘Carry that guy out of here on a stretcher,’ ‘I’d like to beat the crap out of him,’ ‘Let’s punch him right in the face.'”

“Suddenly, American and Anti-American was being defined the old stupid way,...

Four of the five contenders in the editing race this year are newcomers, with only Alan Baumgarten (“The Trial of Chicago 7”), who snared an Oscar nom for 2013’s “American Hustle,” being recognized previously by the Academy.

“The Father” might have landed six nominations including best picture, but to land a win here it would need to beat frontrunners “Sound of Metal” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”

However, historically, to be considered the Oscar frontrunner for best picture, you need to land picture, director, original or adapted screenplay, editing and acting nominations. There are only two films that check that: “Nomadland” and “Promising Young Woman.”

Confused? This is where Oscar watchers will need to be following what Ace Eddies pick come April 17.

The Ace Eddies track record for guiding who wins the editor prize on Oscar night stands at 89%. It also is a solid guide to predicting best picture.

With tight races for Best Ensemble and Lead Actress, suspense was running high before the pre-taped hourlong SAG Awards show Sunday night — at least for those insiders who did not hear leaks of Thursday’s real-time winners.

As it turns out, the SAG Awards and Oscars may not sync up as easily as last year, when all the Ensemble nominees went on to win Oscars, along with all the SAG acting winners — Renée Zellweger (“Judy”), Joaquin Phoenix (“Joker”), Brad Pitt (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”), and Laura Dern (“Marriage Story”). This time, SAG was full of surprises that will shake up the Oscar race.

The evening’s big shocker was the double-whammy SAG Awards for not only the expected Best Male in a Leading Role winner Chadwick Boseman — but also his costar Viola Davis in the bigger-than-life, dazzling title role in Netflix’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Boseman gave the performance of his life,...

With tight races for Best Ensemble and Lead Actress, suspense was running high before the pre-taped hourlong SAG Awards show Sunday night — at least for those insiders who did not hear leaks of Thursday’s real-time winners.

As it turns out, the SAG Awards and Oscars may not sync up as easily as last year, when all the Ensemble nominees went on to win Oscars, along with all the SAG acting winners — Renée Zellweger (“Judy”), Joaquin Phoenix (“Joker”), Brad Pitt (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”), and Laura Dern (“Marriage Story”). This time, SAG was full of surprises that will shake up the Oscar race.

The evening’s big shocker was the double-whammy SAG Awards for not only the expected Best Male in a Leading Role winner Chadwick Boseman — but also his costar Viola Davis in the bigger-than-life, dazzling title role in Netflix’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Boseman gave the performance of his life,...

While Nomadland picked up Best Picture at the Critics Choice a couple of weeks back—a pretty reliable Oscar top prize indicator—at Sunday night’s SAG, it wasn’t even nominated in that category. Instead, that prize went to Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7, possibly bolstering its chances at the Academy show on April 25th.

The ‘Best Picture’ prize at SAG is actually awarded to the Best Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture, and in accepting the award on behalf of the all-star cast, Frank Langella, who played Judge Julius Hoffman, recalled Martin Luther King’s words:

“God give us leaders, said the Reverend Martin Luther King, before he was shot down in cold blood on this very date in 1968—a profound injustice. The Trial of the Chicago 7 began 18 months later, ruled by a corrupt judge—me. Aaron Sorkin was determined to tell their story...

Michael Keaton is already in the history books as being cinema’s greatest Batman, but the actor made history again on Sunday night when he, as a member of the cast of “The Trial of The Chicago 7,” became the first person to ever win three film ensemble Screen Actors Guild Awards. The “Spider-Man: Homecoming” actor previously won as a member of the casts of “Birdman” (2014) and “Spotlight” (2015), both of which went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture.

“The Trial of the Chicago 7,” which received three SAG nominations in total and was leading Gold Derby’s combined odds to win ensemble heading into Sunday’s ceremony, had been the frontrunner all season long. It easily triumphed over the competition, which also included Lee Isaac Chung‘s “Minari,” a semi-autobiographical film about a Korean-American family starting a farm in Arkansas that several of Gold Derby’s Editors actually predicted to win instead.

Updated with full winners list: The Trial of the Chicago 7 won the Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture prize, SAG’s version of Best Picture, at the 27th annual SAG Awards on Sunday night. It was one of 13 awards honoring the year’s best film and TV acting performances.

The late Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis took the best leading male and female actor in a motion picture honors for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. In the supporting actor category, Yuh-Jung Youn took the trophy for Minari and Daniel Kaluuya for his role as Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah.

Among the movie categories, the marquee ensemble prize is often an Oscar bellwether. Last year, Neon’s Parasite surprised with a win and it later repeated the feat by taking the Academy Awards’ Best Picture prize.The Trial of the Chicago 7 faced off against Da 5 Bloods,...

While “Nomadland” has been crushing it most of this awards season, it will largely be sitting out of the upcoming SAG Awards. Its only representation is for previous two-time Best Female Actor champion Frances McDormand who isn’t seen as a serious threat to prevail again. (Though the most respected McDormand is always a possibility.)

That leaves the SAG ensemble contest wide open. “Da 5 Bloods,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “One Night in Miami” all missed Oscar nominations for Best Picture, and not since 1996’s “The Birdcage” has a cast flown away with the SAG prize without a corresponding Oscar nom. That leaves two ducks remaining: “Minari” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” While “Minari” is a sweet film with a wonderful team of actors, don’t expect it to follow in the footsteps of last year’s surprise winner, “Parasite.”

Here are five reasons why “The Trial of the Chicago 7...

Film editor Alan Baumgarten could embark on a second career as a juggler. Not that he has an interest in bowling pins or the circus, but the longtime cutting craftsman has made a specialty of, well, juggling many characters and non-linear plots into clean, coherent audience experiences. Baumgarten was nominated for an Oscar for 2013’s “American Hustle” and again this year as one of the six nominations (and perhaps the most no-brainer nod of them all) notched for Aaron Sorkin’s vast ensemble drama “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”

The film depicts an inflammatory political and cultural period in 1968 and 1969, and contains more than two dozen characters, from lawyers and defendants to judges and government officials. Though the size of the cast was formidable, Baumgarten’s greatest challenge came in a six-minute scene that narrow-focused on two characters and a complex flashback to a riot outside the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

Jane Fonda knows what she wants—and what she doesn't. When it comes to a partner, the actress, 83, is often drawn to men who lead lives dissimilar to her own. "Part of the reason I get into a relationship with a man is because I feel that he can take me down a new path," she explained in the April issue of Harper's Bazaar. "I'm attracted to people who can teach me things and whose lives are different from mine, and so I give myself over to that. First of all, I want to please him. That's a problem." Take, for example, her relationship with Ted Turner, who she wed following her failed romances with Roger Vadim and Tom Hayden. The...

Sacha Baron Cohen, who earned his first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” discussed the duality of his performance as Vietnam War protester and left-wing provocateur Abbie Hoffman in a new featurette available exclusively on TheWrap.

“In a way, there’s two Abbies,” Cohen said. “There’s the public persona of Abbie where he’s trying to inspire people and then there’s the private Abbie. So there’s a balance between the clown and the intellect.”

Cohen’s co-stars in writer-director Aaron Sorkin’s film compared noted the similarities between Hoffman and Cohen himself — and the British star’s work as a satirist, most notably in the two “Borat” films (the second of which earned Cohen a screenplay Oscar nomination this year).

“Sacha has demonstrated a lot of courageousness in terms of standing up to power,” said Jeremy Strong, who plays Jerry Rubin in the film.

As the awards calendar hurtles toward the delayed Oscars on April 25, we have a clear frontrunner for Best Picture. Last year, Bong Joon Ho’s dark drama “Parasite” rode the Palme d’Or from May through to a Best Picture win. But it was, finally, a global blockbuster that appealed to the mainstream.

That wasn’t an option this pandemic award season. Even if the list of 2021 Oscar contenders is smaller-scale and more independent than usual, the film that boasts wide appeal across the Academy’s 23 branches will finally take home the Best Picture Oscar. With six nominations including Best Picture, Actress, Director, Editor, Adapted Screenplay, and Cinematography, Chloé Zhao’s hybrid cinéma vérité “Nomadland” (Searchlight/Hulu) is the film that hits the lonely pandemic zeitgeist in this weird year — even if the film didn’t score the SAG Ensemble nomination that “Parasite” did in 2020. “Nomadland” did win the Venice...

As the awards calendar hurtles toward the delayed Oscars on April 25, we have a clear frontrunner for Best Picture. Last year, Bong Joon Ho’s dark drama “Parasite” rode the Palme d’Or from May through to a Best Picture win. But it was, finally, a global blockbuster that appealed to the mainstream.

That wasn’t an option this pandemic award season. Even if the list of 2021 Oscar contenders is smaller-scale and more independent than usual, the film that boasts wide appeal across the Academy’s 23 branches will finally take home the Best Picture Oscar. With six nominations including Best Picture, Actress, Director, Editor, Adapted Screenplay, and Cinematography, Chloé Zhao’s hybrid cinéma vérité “Nomadland” (Searchlight/Hulu) is the film that hits the lonely pandemic zeitgeist in this weird year — even if the film didn’t score the SAG Ensemble nomination that “Parasite” did in 2020. “Nomadland” did win the Venice...

Aaron Sorkin is the writer and director behind “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” which tells the real-life story of the anti-Vietnam War protestors who were arrested at the 1968 Democratic Convention. The film just earned six Oscar nominations including Best Picture, with Sorkin himself earning his fourth career bid for writing the screenplay.

Sorkin recently spoke with Gold Derby contributing writer Charlie Bright about when he first learned about the real Chicago 7, the casting process for the film and his experience recently winning a Golden Globe at a virtual ceremony. Watch the exclusive interview above and read the complete transcript below.

Seesag Awards nominee profile: Sacha Baron Cohen (‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’) seeks to gain back lost ground

Gold Derby: The first question that I wanted to ask is about when these events actually happened. I know you were very young when the ’68 convention happened, but were you...

2020 may have been a terrible year for a lot of us, but for Sacha Baron Cohen it couldn’t be further from the truth. In addition to his well-received return as Borat in “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” he also won raves for his performance in “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” He’s starting 2021 in a great way as he’s fresh off of two victories at the Golden Globes for the former (Best Comedy/Musical Film and Best Film Comedy/Musical Actor) and he’s now looking to collect some hardware for the latter. He’s nominated twice for “The Trial of the Chicago 7”: in the supporting actor category and as a member of the film’s cast in ensemble.

Baron Cohen’s competition in the supporting actor race is very similar to what he faced at the Globes: Leslie Odom, Jr. (“One Night in Miami”), Jared Leto...

Nominees for the 71st annual Ace Eddie Awards include such Best Picture contenders as Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland,” David Fincher’s monochromatic “Mank,” Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” Lee Isaac Chung’s “Minari,” Emerald Fennell’s “Promising Young Woman” (as a comedy), and Darius Marder’s “Sound of Metal.”

The awards show will be held live on April 17 at 11:00 a.m. Pt.

Overlooked, though, were “News of the World” (edited by “Argo” Oscar-winner William Goldenberg) and “Tenet,” as well as three Black-led dramas, “Da 5 Bloods,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” and “One Night in Miami.” However, there’s still the possibility of one or two of these making the final Oscar nominations, along with the buzzy “Minari” and “Promising Young Woman.”

In terms of using the Editing win as an Oscar bellwether for predicting Best Picture, the last time the winners coincided was “Argo” in...

Aaron Sorkin, the writer/director of the red-hot Oscar contender “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” felt the film was “pretty relevant” during production in the winter of 2019. His acclaimed Netflix film documents the historic case against the political activists accused of inciting riots at the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention. “We didn’t need it to get more relevant,” said Sorkin, who just won a Golden Globe for his screenplay, during a recent Variety Zoom interview with the publication’s Jazz Tangcay. Joining Sorkin were stars Sacha Baron Cohen (Abbie Hoffman) and Eddie Redmayne (Tom Hayden) plus producer Marc Platt and editor Alan Baumgarten.

But obviously, said Sorkin, the film became even more relevant “in May with the police killings of George Floyd and Brianna Taylor, protestors taking to the streets and cities all over America and in a number of those cities, those protestors being met by tear gas and riot clubs.

Even though Aaron Sorkin has a great love for politics, he admits that he didn’t know who the Chicago 7 were at first. It all started when he met with Steven Spielberg at his house and the director said he wanted to make a movie about the Chicago 7. “I said, ‘The Chicago 7? Count me in! That sounds great.’ I left his house, called my father and asked him who the Chicago 7 were,’ Sorkin reveals to us in our recent webchat (watch the exclusive video above). He was familiar with several of the figures, but he had to do a lot of research on the subject. “Most critically, I got to spend time with Tom Hayden and that’s what gave me a look into the tension between Tom and Abbie Hoffman.”

SEEWill Aaron Sorkin join an elite group with Oscar wins for writing and directing ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7...

Using historical recreation, comedy and the tropes of horror, many of the most impactful movies of 2020 dramatized important cultural conversations — some that audiences began examining long ago, and others they may still be reluctant to broach at all.

Social commentary has become an additive, even essential element in the resonance of a contemporary narratives, even those set in the past or masked by the mechanics and conventions of a particular genre, simultaneously challenging screenwriters while supplying them with new and unique creative opportunities. And particularly in a year of such tremendous upheaval, tales about generational shifts — clashes between a safe and possibly outdated old world, and the irrepressible spirit of what’s coming — generated some spectacularly moving moments on screen.

As far back as “A Few Good Men,” writer-director Aaron Sorkin has always worn his liberal bona fides on his sleeve. But after spending 14 years bringing “The Trial of the Chicago 7” to the screen,...

Celeste’s contribution to the Golden Globe-nominated song “Hear My Voice” started with WhatsApp messages recorded in her bathroom.

That’s just one of the revelations in a half-hour conversation with the U.K.’s latest singing sensation, her co-writer Daniel Pemberton and the legendary Sir Elton John, released today by “The Trial of the Chicago 7” distributor Netflix.

“Hear My Voice” concludes the Aaron Sorkin film about the controversial 1969 court case involving Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne), Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen) and other protestors caught up in the riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

The song is up for a Golden Globe on Sunday night and been short-listed for the Oscar song category. She also performed the song on last night’s “Late Show With Stephen Colbert” and it’s on the deluxe version of her album “Not Your Muse,” which debuted at no. 1 on the U.

2020 may have been a terrible year for a lot of us, but for Sacha Baron Cohen it couldn’t be further from the truth. His two films from last year, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” were big successes and now he’s looking to translate that into some awards love in 2021. “Borat” netted him two Golden Globe nominations (he won Best Musical/Comedy Actor in 2006 for the first “Borat” film) and he’s also a contender for his featured role in “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”

Cohen is competing in Best Supporting Actor category against Daniel Kaluuya (“Judas and the Black Messiah”), Jared Leto (“The Little Things”), Bill Murray (“On the Rocks”) and Leslie Odom, Jr. (“One Night in Miami…”). Odom, Jr. is the only newcomer of the group, though he is also nominated in the Best Original Song category. Kaluuya contended for Best...

Frank Langella is Stanislavsky over Strasberg (“Lee took Stanislavsky and bastardized him terribly”), acting over stardom (“I play my strong suit and try to disappear”), and old over young. “I’d hate to be a young actor starting out now,” said the 83-year-old performer; he was 32 when he earned his first film credit, in “Diary of a Mad Housewife,” which earned him a 1971 Golden Globe nomination as Most Promising Newcomer-Male. “I’ve seen people write about a new young actor who is only 24 being thrown on the junk heap.”

Langella is also theater over film, usually, but he was delighted to make the exception for Aaron Sorkin, whom he compares to Shakespeare. “All the classics I’ve done, I’m safe inside these brilliant writers,” he said. “There are not many today. With Aaron, you never feel you’re being abandoned: ‘How do I play this?’ Aaron has a delicious chocolate cake,...

Frank Langella is Stanislavsky over Strasberg (“Lee took Stanislavsky and bastardized him terribly”), acting over stardom (“I play my strong suit and try to disappear”), and old over young. “I’d hate to be a young actor starting out now,” said the 83-year-old performer; he was 32 when he earned his first film credit, in “Diary of a Mad Housewife,” which earned him a 1971 Golden Globe nomination as Most Promising Newcomer-Male. “I’ve seen people write about a new young actor who is only 24 being thrown on the junk heap.”

Langella is also theater over film, usually, but he was delighted to make the exception for Aaron Sorkin, whom he compares to Shakespeare. “All the classics I’ve done, I’m safe inside these brilliant writers,” he said. “There are not many today. With Aaron, you never feel you’re being abandoned: ‘How do I play this?’ Aaron has a delicious chocolate cake,...

Thursday marked the 51st anniversary of the verdict featured in The Trial of the Chicago 7, and in honor of the milestone, Netflix is streaming the 2020 film for free on their YouTube for 48 hours starting at midnight. Starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jeremy Strong, and Eddie Redmayne, the Aaron Sorkin-directed film follows the infamous case of eight men - Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner, and Bobby Seale - who were indicted for inciting riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

"It's our honor to share their story with the world."

"Since my initial introduction fourteen years ago, my relationship to the story of The Trial of the Chicago 7 has changed significantly," Sorkin said in a statement shared by Netflix. "When we began shooting last winter, we knew the story we were telling was not only an important chapter of American history,...

If you want to speak truth to power, then write a story. That was Aaron Sorkin’s message at the 2017 WGA Awards when he picked up his Paddy Chayefsky honor. In his speech, he took aim at immigration and climate change policies, among others. So, it’s no shock to see him address our freedoms with his Netflix film, The Trial of the Chicago 7, which today picked up a WGA nom in the original screenplay category, his 15th scribe guild nomination after winning three. The movie follows protestors, including Tom Hayden and Abbie Hoffman, who were charged with inciting a riot during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Steven Spielberg first assigned Sorkin to write the story, and the 2020 election hastened Sorkin to finally make the movie. To date, Trial of the Chicago 7 counts five Golden Globe nominations including Best Picture Picture – Drama, and Sorkin in the Director and Screenplay categories.

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Michael Keaton already holds one of the most important titles in the world as The Best Batman in Cinematic History. However, the versatile actor could potentially add another important chapter to his legacy with a win at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday, April 4. Nominated for Best Film Ensemble for Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” Keaton would set a record by becoming the first person to win three film ensemble SAG Awards if the Netflix drama walks away with the top prize. The “Spider-Man: Homecoming” (2017) star previously won as a member of the casts of “Birdman” (2014) and “Spotlight” (2015).

“The Trial of the Chicago 7,” which received three nominations total, is currently leading Gold Derby’s combined odds to win ensemble, with six experts predicting it over fellow nominees “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” (4/1 odds), “Minari” (4/1 odds), “One Night in Miami” (9/2 odds) and “Da 5 Bloods” (9/2 odds...

Back in 2006 British TV comedian Sacha Baron Cohen took the world by storm when he wrote, produced, and starred in the outlandish mockumentary film “Borat.” The title character, a guileless Kazakh journalist, had already appeared in various projects over the preceding decade, including the HBO series “Da Ali G Show” and the 2002 film “Ali G Indahouse.” It was not until he was given his own film, however, that he truly broke into the zeitgeist and his creator experienced his greatest success.

Though he had a BAFTA Award and four Emmy bids to his name prior to “Borat,” Baron Cohen’s popularity rose to new heights upon the film’s release and his comedic genius attracted widespread acclaim. The film outgrossed “Ali G Indahouse” tenfold and became a serious awards contender in 2007. Baron Cohen ended up winning a Golden Globe for his acting and earned WGA and Oscar nominations for co-writing the screenplay.

Updated with full list: The nominations for the 27th SAG Award were announced Thursday in a virtual ceremony featuring Lily Collins and Daveed Diggs reading off nominees in 13 film and TV categories honoring the best acting of the past year.

Much like it did at the Golden Globes the day before, Netflix led the way with 30 total nominations. The Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture ensemble race features three Netflix dramas: Da 5 Bloods, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and The Trial of the Chicago 7 along with A24’s Minari and Amazon Studios’ One Night In Miami. Outside of Chicago 7 it is a fully new slate of films from the admittedly apples-to-oranges Best Motion Picture lists set by the Golden Globes on Wednesday.

Last year, Parasite won the film ensemble award, pushing it down the road to the eventual Best Picture Oscar.

Other notables o the film...

Eddie Redmayne, a 2015 Oscar winner for playing Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, once again takes on the role of a historical figure in Netflix’s The Trial of the Chicago 7. As Tom Hayden, the late anti-war activist who was charged alongside six others for inciting riots during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Redmayne stands out in a star-studded cast that includes Sacha Baron Cohen, Mark Rylance, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Frank Langella and Michael Keaton — all while delivering dialogue written by Oscar-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, who also directs. Redmayne spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the camaraderie ...

Eddie Redmayne, a 2015 Oscar winner for playing Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, once again takes on the role of a historical figure in Netflix’s The Trial of the Chicago 7. As Tom Hayden, the late anti-war activist who was charged alongside six others for inciting riots during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Redmayne stands out in a star-studded cast that includes Sacha Baron Cohen, Mark Rylance, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Frank Langella and Michael Keaton — all while delivering dialogue written by Oscar-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, who also directs. Redmayne spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the camaraderie ...