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Wine snobs can be some of the most insufferable people out there. This is displayed perfectly in Alexander Payne’s 2004 dramedy Sideways, if not just through the movie’s most famous line. As delivered by depressed oenophile Miles (Paul Giamatti): “If anyone orders merlot, I’m leaving. I am not drinking any f*cking merlot!” And with that, sales of merlot dropped straight into the barrel.

That sounds like it could be a story tied to the film, sort of like the unfounded rumor that sales of undershirts plummeted because Clark Gable didn’t wear one in a movie. But this is absolutely true. In a new feature marking the 20th anniversary of Sideways, winemaker Doug Margerum remembered the ripple effect that line had, saying everybody started switching to pinot noir instead of merlot. “We were having a hard time selling pinot then, but after the film came out,...

Alexander Payne had modest expectations for Sideways when his unassuming indie about an antic-filled buddy road trip through idyllic California wine country hit theaters in the fall of 2004. With an estimated budget of $16 million, the film wound up raking in more than $100 million worldwide and an Academy Award for best adapted screenplay — in addition to nominations for best picture, best director and best supporting actor (Thomas Haden Church) and actress (Virginia Madsen).

“As we were making Sideways, I thought it was just a nice little comedy and had no idea that it would ever stand the test of time,” says Payne. “And the merlot line that supposedly changed the wine industry? Well, it was just a joke, one single line in a movie. Who could have ever predicted that?”

The line in question comes about halfway into the movie. Miles, the pinot noir fanatic played by a typically agitated Paul Giamatti,...

Ready for a cozy, romantic comedy series? “Nobody Wants This” may be the warm blanket you asked for.

The Netflix series created by Erin Foster follows the unlikely love story between an outspoken, sex podcaster (Kristen Bell) and an upstanding Rabbi (Adam Brody).

Bell and Brody’s tangible chemistry drives the 10-episode rom-com home, making you wish you had more to binge. Breakout sibling performances from Justine Lupe (“Succession”) and Timothy Simons (“Veep”) round out the cast of this lighthearted, will-they-won’t-they romance.

Keep reading for a complete guide to the “Nobody Wants This” cast.

Kristen Bell as Joanne in episode 101 of “Nobody Wants This.” (Credit: Hopper Stone/Netflix) Kristen Bell as Joanne

Joanne is an outspoken sex podcaster, who doesn’t believe in God. She gets taken by surprise when she’s seated next to a Rabbi (Brody) at a dinner party, who starts to change her mind. Their unlikely love story begins there.

The Property Masters Guild (Pmg) announced the winners of the inaugural Pmg MacGuffin Awards, which is the only awards show to date celebrating the significant artistic achievements of Property Masters. The Motion Picture MacGuffin Awards were presented to “Oppenheimer”, “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning – Part 1” (David Cheesman) and “Poor Things” (Balázs M. Kovács).

Winners in the Television Series included “The Bear”, “Lessons in Chemistry”, “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan”, “That ‘90s Show”, “Perry Mason”, “The Last of Us” (Justin Onofriechuk) and “A Black Lady Sketch Show”.

Russell Bobbitt, the Property Master behind Marvel Studios films such as the “Iron Man” franchise, “Captain America” franchise and the “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise, earned the Hill Valley Humanitarian Award. He was recognized for “his outstanding philanthropic efforts and dedication to using his talents and resources to make a difference in the lives of those in need, including providing unique hands-on Marvel prop experiences for youth encountering debilitating health challenges.

One of the most acclaimed films of 2004 is “Collateral,” starring Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx and Jada Pinkett Smith. Written by Stuart Beattie and directed by Michael Mann, the movie tells of a cab driver in nighttime Los Angeles who becomes the hostage of a contract killer. Released 20 years ago in August 2004, “Collateral” was a box office success, grossing $220 million worldwide on a $65 million budget. Read on for more about the “Collateral” 20th anniversary.

Most of the nation’s critics were positive on “Collateral.” Todd McCarthy in Variety wrote, “This intensely focused piece soars not only on the director’s precision-tooled style but also on the outstanding interplay between leads Cruise and Foxx.” Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called the film “a rare thriller that’s as much character study as sound and fury.” And Peter Travers in Rolling Stone said, “Mann hits a new peak, orchestrating action, atmosphere and...

Exclusive: Alexander Payne has lambasted a report from earlier this year that the script for his five-time Oscar-nominated film The Holdovers, which he directed from a script by David Hemingson, was plagiarized.

“It was the stupidest thing in the world,” Payne told us at the Sarajevo Film Festival when asked about the Variety report earlier this year, which dropped on the eve of the Oscar ceremony.

In the piece, Luca screenwriter Simon Stephenson accused The Holdovers script of being plagiarized from his 2013 Black List screenplay Frisco.

“It was irresponsible of Variety to report on that without having read the scripts and comparing them themselves,” claimed Payne. “Do you think The New York Times would have done that?”

He added: “I haven’t heard anything more about it and I wish him [Stephenson] well but there was just no merit to it. I mean, I didn’t even pay attention to...

Alexander Payne is developing a Danish-language feature film that will shoot in Denmark and be 100% funded by European money.

Speaking to Screen at the Sarajevo Film Festival, Payne said he is yet to write the script but that he expected to qualify for certain European funding pots through his Greek citizenship.

He did not reveal plot or title details of the project, which would be the first European film for the Sideways and The Holdovers director. The director was previously attached to a Netflix film starring Mads Mikkelsen that was due to shoot in Denmark, Sweden and the US in...

As the Sarajevo Film Festival prepares to launch its 30th edition, which runs August 16-23, the event stands as a testament to the resilience and creativity of Southeast European cinema in the face of social and political upheaval.

Few cities bear the scars and burden of history as does Sarajevo. The festival itself was born out of conflict, launched during the nearly four-year siege of the city by Bosnian Serb forces in the early ’90s. While the fest has never avoided this history — it runs a “Dealing With the Past” section of films that look at “the many and unresolved issues that date back to the conflict in the former Yugoslavia” — from the start, the focus has been on the power of cinema to unite.

“The festival screen films from Serbia just a few years after the war, which was not a popular choice at the time,” says fest director Jovan Marjanović,...

Two-time Academy Award winner Alexander Payne (“The Holdovers”) teased the upcoming sequel to his beloved black comedy “Election” Sunday in Sarajevo while dishing on his desire to dabble in genre, sharing more details of an upcoming Western while also expressing his hopes “to do a good car chase film.”

Payne, who’s appearing at the Sarajevo Film Festival to receive a lifetime achievement award, gave an update on the anticipated sequel to his 1999 adaptation of the novel by Tom Perrotta, starring Reese Witherspoon as the ruthless go-getter Tracy Flick.

Paramount is reported to be developing a sequel for streaming service Paramount+, “Tracy Flick Can’t Win,” based on Perrotta’s follow-up novel, published in 2022, with Witherspoon reprising her iconic role and Payne tapped to direct.

“There is talk. Jim Taylor and I are conceiving that now,” Payne said on Sunday, describing conversations with his longtime collaborator, also in attendance. “If...

Alexander Payne touched down at the Sarajevo Film Festival on Sunday where he shed some light on his next project – a Western which will reunite the writer-director with The Holdovers scribe David Hemingson.

Speaking at a masterclass at the Bosnian Cultural Center, Payne, whose last project The Holdovers earned five Oscar nominations, told the audience that he wanted to explore different genres from the types of films he has made so far.

“The one genre I’ve wanted to do is a Western,” said Payne. “So, right now while Jim [Taylor] and I are talking about a sequel to Election, with a different writer – the guy who wrote The Holdovers [David Hemingson], we have been conceiving a Western for years now.”

He added: “It would be nice to take a kind of realistic-slash-naturalistic approach to a Western and also using landscape. In as much as sense of place is important…part of my...

Alexander Payne teased post-The Holdovers projects to an audience at the Sarajevo Film Festival on Sunday (August 18), providing an update on the Election sequel and saying he wants to make “a car chase movie.”

“Jim Taylor and I are conceiving what the sequel would look like now,” said Payne of the Election sequel, which is in the works at Paramount+. Taylor is a regular collaborator with Payne, including as co-writer on Downsizing and Sideways.

The film will be based on the 2022 sequel novel Tracy Flick Can’t Win by Tom Perrotta, who wrote the first book Election on which...

When the Sarajevo Film Festival was born in the midst of the Bosnian War in 1995, the festival’s initial aim was to reconstruct and regenerate the capital city and its inhabitants who had been cut off from the rest of the world during the four-year siege. With the festival set to kick off its 30th edition on Friday, these early objectives – to support the local industry while also driving the city forward – still remain as this year’s edition will see the event move the bulk of its events from its usual home in Sarajevo’s old town to the Marijin Dvor neighborhood, a modern district of the city.

For festival director Jovan Marjanović, it’s a move that will signify a new era of a much-loved festival that has served as an essential launching pad for regional talent. “We’re testing the waters with this new place,” he tells Deadline.

It’s already been two decades since “Sideways” pals Miles and Jack toured the Santa Inez Valley north of Santa Barbara and Miles, played by Paul Giamatti, declared, “I am not drinking any fucking merlot!”

But what did Miles and Jack, played by Thomas Haden Church, drink instead of merlot, which was deemed too mundane for their elevated tastes? Pinot noir, and lots of it! In Searchlight Pictures’ 2004 comedy, which is set to stream on Hulu this fall, the wine-obsessed duo sip and dine at the Hitching Post 2 restaurant in Buellton. Now, the Hitching Post is getting ready for the 20 year anniversary by hosting three Hitching Post + Sideways winemaker dinners and releasing a special edition pinot noir.

Hitching Post 2 chef and winemaker Frank Ostini and winemaker Gray Hartley of Hitching Post Wines are hosting anniversary events along with Santa Barbara’s La Paloma Cafe, Taste of the Santa Ynez Valley,...

It’s been 13 weeks since Kendrick Lamar dropped “Not Like Us,” the devastating Drake diss that’s now sat near the top of the charts for the majority of the summer. While he’s been relatively quiet since then, it looks like Drake is plotting a return to the public eye. On Friday, he surprised fans at PartyNextDoor’s tour stop in Toronto, hopping on stage to perform a handful of songs to the sold-out hometown crowd and to announce an upcoming collaborative project set to drop in the fall.

Alexander Payne, whose most recent film “The Holdovers” picked up five Oscar nominations and one win, will receive the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award at the 30th Sarajevo Film Festival, in recognition of his “outstanding contribution to the art of film.”

Payne’s longtime collaborator Jim Taylor, with whom he shared the 2005 adapted screenplay Oscar for “Sideways,” will join him at the festival, which runs Aug. 16 to 23. Payne will present a special screening of “Sideways,” which earned five Academy Award nominations.

Payne also will hold a masterclass, which will be “an opportunity for the film enthusiasts to learn from him about film production, directing, screenwriting, and other key aspects of his career,” according to a statement from the festival.

Payne’s eight feature films have been nominated for 24 Oscars, including four times for best picture and three times for director. He has won twice for adapted screenplay, and “The Holdovers” won supporting actress this year.

Der zweifache Oscargewinner erhält beim 30. Sarajevo Film Festival im August das Ehren-„Heart of Sarajevo“.

Alexander Payne wird beim Sarajevo Film Festival im August mit dem „Heart of Sarajevo“ geehrt (Credit: Sarajevo Film Festival)

Seit 2005 vergibt das Sarajevo Film Festival das Ehren-„Heart of Sarajevo“ an Persönlichkeiten für ihren Beitrag zur Förderung und Entwicklung der Filmbranche sowie die Unterstützung und Entwicklung des Festivals. Wie das Festival heute bekannt gibt, geht die Auszeichnung bei seiner von 16. bis 23. August stattfindenden 30. Ausgabe an den zweifach mit dem Oscar ausgezeichneten Regisseur, Drehbuchautor und Produzent Alexander Payne.

Jovan Marjanovic sagt über Payne, der 2005 zwei seiner Filme im „Tribute to“-Programm des Festivals präsentiert hatte: „Es erscheint mir angemessen, Alexander Payne mit dem Ehren-‚Heart of Sarajevo‘ auszuzeichnen, nicht nur, weil er Sarajevo liebt, sondern auch, weil im Mittelpunkt all seiner Geschichten Menschen mit einem großen Herzen stehen. Als Regisseur, der über eine bemerkenswerte Fähigkeit verfügt,...

US filmmaker Alexander Payne will receive the honorary Heart of Sarajevo award at the 2024 Sarajevo Film Festival (August 16-23).

Payne will present a masterclass at the festival about film production, directing and writing as well as other aspects of his career. He will also present a screening of his 2004 comedy-drama Sideways, which won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay.

He will be joined by longtime collaborator Jim Taylor, who wrote Payne’s films Election, About Schmidt and Sideways, and produced 2011’s The Descendants.

Payne previously attended the festival in 2005, presenting his films in a ‘Tribute to’ programme. His last feature...

Welcome to our weekly rundown of the best new music — featuring big new singles, key tracks from our favorite albums, and more. This week, Ice Spice drops her hugely anticipated debut album and joins forces with Travis Scott, Halsey taps into the melancholy side of Britney Spears, and Post Malone teams up with Luke Combs for some feel-good country. Plus, new music from Kacey Musgraves, Calvin Harris, and Ellie Goulding.

Ice Spice feat. Travis Scott, “Oh Shhh…” (YouTube)

Halsey, “Lucky” (YouTube)

Post Malone feat. Luke Combs, “Guy for That” (YouTube)

Kacey Musgraves,...

Gordo is one of those artists-producers who has been around for years — his name casually appearing on a constant stream of hits from all of your favorites. He’s done it all at this point. He’s been DJ’ing for more than 20 years, first getting notice in the mid-2010s as DJ Carnage and then going on to pioneer house, club, and techno sounds across the globe. He’s experimented with reggaeton and Latin styles as well, playing massive festivals and launching tours across Latin America. In hip-hop, he’s dropped massive chart-toppers,...

This week marks the arrival of "Twisters" (read /Film's review), a sequel arriving nearly three decades after the original blockbuster hit "Twister." Because of how much time has elapsed between films, the cast for "Twisters" is entirely different. Although "Twisters," like its predecessor, boasts plenty of flashy special effects to create the sensation of powerful tornadoes popping up throughout Oklahoma as it tracks different groups of storm chasers trying to wrangle these bouts of Mother Nature's anger, the film doesn't quite live up to the secret weapon that "Twister" had: surprisingly committed character actors delivering better-than-needed supporting performances. But character actors popping up to steal the show in big-budget blockbusters isn't unique to "Twister" or its sequel, so let's rank the 10 best blockbuster performances by character actors.

Read more: The 20 Best Western Movie Actors Ranked

10. Paul Giamatti, Planet Of The Apes

With more than 25 years of hindsight, there's not too...

The Oaks cul-de-sac in Holidazed on Hallmark+ [Image Hallmark Channel on YouTube]

Hallmark Media has announced a new, original limited series, Holidazed, set to air during the holiday season exclusively on Hallmark+.

The fun series features six diverse families living in one cul-de-sac and their varying holiday traditions. As in real life, not everything is perfect during the holidays as each family faces its own challenges. Read on to find out more about Holidazed and its fan-favorite cast members.

Hallmark+ to release new limited series Holidazed Six families living in the same cul-de-sac celebrate the holidays in Holidazed on Hallmark+[Image Hallmark Channel on YouTube]

As the undisputed leader in holiday content, Hallmark Media keeps growing its offerings. The latest is a new limited series Holidazed, starring a fan-favorite cast. The eight-episode limited series is set to air on Hallmark+ during the holidays and features the humor, love and family feelings between six families,...

Paul Giamatti is boldly going where no one from “Billions” has gone before: the “Star Trek” franchise.

The Oscar-nominated star of “The Holdovers” has boarded Paramount+’s upcoming series “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” in a major recurring role, Variety reports.

Per the trade, Giamatti will play the first season’s main villain, who has a “sinister connection” to one of Starfleet Academy’s cadets.

“Sometimes you’re lucky enough to discover that one of the greatest actors alive is also a huge ‘Star Trek’ fan, and meeting Paul was one of those miraculous moments for us,” co-showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau said in a statement. “The sheer delight with which he dove in on ‘Starfleet Academy’ is only surpassed by the gratitude we feel about him joining our incredible cast.”

Giamatti joins Oscar winner Holly Hunter in the cast. Hunter will be playing the captain and chancellor of Starfleet Academy,...

Star Trek fans are celebrating this afternoon after hearing about Paul Giamatti joining the cast of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy for a recurring villainous role. The Oscar-nominated actor plays the central villain in the upcoming series, described as “a man with an ominious past with a connection to one of the show’s cadets.”

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy “introduces us to a young group of cadets who come together to pursue a common dream of hope and optimism. Under the watchful and demanding eyes of their instructors, they will discover what it takes to become Starfleet officers as they navigate blossoming friendships, explosive rivalries, first loves and a new enemy that threatens both the Academy and the Federation itself.”

Last month, Holly Hunter joined the cast of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, lending even more star power to a fan-favorite corner of the beloved science-fiction franchise. Hunter will portray the captain...

"Million Dollar Baby" was Clint Eastwood's second Best Picture winner — and, I've a feeling, narrowly missed out on being his third, because there was a tremendous amount of enthusiasm for "Mystic River" in 2003. Unfortunately for Eastwood, that happened to be the year voters had earmarked as the year to celebrate Peter Jackson's brilliantly executed Middle-earth saga with the release of its concluding chapter "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King." Still, I bet it was a closer vote.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of "Million Dollar Baby" taking Best Picture is that, looking over the near-century-long list of winners, it's likely in the top five of awardees you never want to watch again — not because it's bad, but because it's horrifically depressing. Eastwood successfully sets the film on a familiar sports movie trajectory, but then it veers shockingly off course into a despairing third act.

Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc is looking dapper as hell in this new look at "Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery," Rian Johnson's latest murder mystery that continues the adventures of the private detective after "Knives Out" and "Glass Onion." The topline instant takeaway is obviously that Blanc has much longer hair than he's had in the previous two films, and that new look could potentially signal a new attitude or maybe even a whole new worldview for this character. Could a shaggier-haired Blanc be a bit more laid back and bohemian this time around? Perhaps he's been hanging out with his pal Derol from "Glass Onion" in between movies and taken some life lessons from the amiable slacker.

Aaaaand we're off! Today is day 1 of shooting on the next Benoit Blanc mystery "Wake Up Dead Man" - see you on the other side. pic.twitter.com/Napfvq...

Paul Giamatti will star in a TV version of Eli Roth’s grisly Hostel franchise. Both Roth and the films’ original producers will be involved in the new series.

A gold star to anyone who saw this coming.

Paul Giamatti, of Billions and Big Fat Liar fame, as well as his collaborations with Alexander Payne including Sideways and this year’s wonderful drama The Holdovers (pictured), is starring in a television version of Eli Roth’s Hostel, which is not a sentence I expected to type today.

It seems this collaboration has been on the cards for some time. Giamatti told Entertainment Weekly in a 2013 interview that “Eli was shooting Hostel in Prague and I was shooting The Illusionist and I met him. We talked about me actually killing somebody in that movie but it never panned out”.

Hostel is a film often, and perhaps quite rightly in the case of its sequel,...

Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc is set to return with another mystery in the upcoming installment of the hit film series, Knives Out 3. The filmmaker, Rian Johnson, who directed the previous two installments, recently revealed the official title of the movie, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, which is scheduled to release in 2025.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery | Credit: Netflix

Continuing the tradition of ensemble casts, it is also expected to feature a stellar lineup. And the Spider-Man star Thomas Haden Church has become the latest addition to the ensemble, which includes the likes of Jeremy Renner and Josh Brolin alongside Craig.

Thomas Haden Church Joins Netflix’s Knives Out 3

Known for portraying the role of Sandman in Spider-Man 3, Thomas Haden Church has become the latest actor to join the ensemble cast of the upcoming film in the Knives Out film series, starring Daniel Craig as the private investigator,...

Paul Giamatti has signed on to star in a television adaptation of Eli Roth’s horror franchise “Hostel.”

The project is in development at Fifth Season, the studio behind “Severance,” and does not yet have a distributor attached. Roth is set to direct and write with original franchise producer Chris Briggs. The two of them will also executive produce alongside “Hostel” alum Mike Fleiss.

“Hostel,” which premiered in theaters in 2005 and spawned two sequels, followed American tourists who are convinced by a stranger to travel from Barcelona to Slovakia, where they are then taken captive by an underground organization that kidnaps people for rich clients to torture and kill.

The series is envisioned as a “modern adaptation” and “reinvention” of the low-budget horror franchise, the first installment of which collected $82 million atop a $4.8 million budget. The less lucrative sequel, 2007’s “Hostel: Part II,” still raked in more than $35 million against a $10.2 million budget.

May has only just arrived, and it’s already heating up at Hulu! Dozens of new titles have moved in for the new month, with some of streamer’s biggest hits landing on the platform during its first weekend, including Season 3 of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s “Welcome to Wrexham” and Season 5 of “The Kardashians,” but Hulu will be adding major titles all month long, from the premiere of the coming-of-age comedy film “Prom Dates” to the streaming debut of last year’s psychological thriller “Eileen.”

Ready to watch? Check out The Streamable’s top picks for this month at Hulu and find out everything coming to the streamer in May!

30-Day Free Trial $7.99+ / month hulu.com What are the 5 Best Shows and Movies Coming to Hulu in May 2024? “The Contestant” Premiere | Thursday, May 2

The new documentary turns the lens on “our culture of oversharing” and tells the true...

Filmmaker Tim Burton is known for his gothic aesthetics and choosing to tell stories of weird characters. The filmmaker has put his stamp on blockbusters such as Batman as well as more personal stories such as Big Fish. He will be returning to one of his most beloved franchises with the Michael Keaton starrer Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

One movie in his filmography that stands out from the rest is his 2001 revival of Planet of the Apes. The project served as a remake of the 1968 classic sci-fi film, and starred Mark Wahlberg, Helena Bonham Carter, and more. The film was not received well upon release and is often considered to be a subpar remake of the original. Actor Paul Giamatti, who played Limbo, spoke about his experience while shooting the film.

Paul Giamatti Has A Theory On Why Tim Burton Cast Him As Limbo A still from Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes...

Hulu’s list of new releases for May 2024 is missing a certain amount of original series firepower. In the place of a blockbuster like The Handmaid’s Tale or Shōgun, however, is some content diversity.

The first of the month sees the premiere of four-episode British series Shardlake. This mystery drama takes place during the reign of Henry VIII and features none other than Thomas Cromwell (Sean Bean) investigating a murder. Other series of note this month include the Korean drama Uncle Samsik on May 15.

Movies are bit more interesting on Hulu in May. Teen comedy Prom Dates premieres on May 3. That will be followed by the 2023 Adam Drive film Ferrari on May 24. Before all that though is the real heavy hitter. You can watch Austin Butler’s acclaimed performance as The King in Elvis as early as May 1. But get to it quick before the Baz Luhrmann film departs on...

What’s the best destination for spring TV? IndieWire doesn’t have a definitive answer, but as we do every month we’ll help you weigh the options with a breakdown of everything coming to your favorite streaming platforms in May.

The month is a prime time to have Disney+, what with the ongoing and buzzy success of “X-Men 97” and upcoming “Marvel Studios’ Assembled” going behind the scenes of the reboot series. May is of course the month of Star Wars, and the House of Mouse will celebrate with “Star Wars: Tales of the Empire” on May 4. Disney is also home to BBC America’s “Doctor Who,” which returns for a highly-anticipated 14th season with Ncuti Gatwa stepping into the Tardis as the new Doctor (he stepped into the role in December 2023 as part of the series’ beloved Christmas special tradition).

Meanwhile, Hulu will continue airing episodes of FX’s...

Robert Downey Jr. stars as not one, but four characters in HBO’s newest thriller series, “The Sympathizer.”

The limited series, which is based on Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel of the same name, follows a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist spy as he hides his identity from a refugee community in Los Angeles during the final days of the Vietnam War.

Keep on reading for the full breakdown of all the characters in “The Sympathizer,” and where you’ve seen each actor before.

Hoa Xuande in “The Sympathizer.” (Hopper Stone/HBO)

Hoa Xuande as The Captain

Hoa Xuande stars as the Captain, a spy for North Vietnam who becomes embedded in a refugee community in Los Angeles. His dual identities prompt him to get caught between his conflicting loyalties and contradicting desires.

Xuande has been featured in “Last King of the Cross,” “A Stitch in Time,” “Cowboy Bebop” and “Hungry Ghosts.

Paul Giamatti is set to join Stephen Colbert for an evening of conversation as part of the second annual North to Shore Festival in New Jersey this June.

The event, set for June 29 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, will raise money for Montclair Film, the New Jersey based arts organization with which Colbert has long been involved, which runs the Montclair Film Festival.

Onstage, the Late Show host and Holdovers star will discuss Giamatti’s long-running screen career. In addition to his recent, Oscar-nominated role in the Alexander Payne-directed film, Giamatti’s film credits include Sideways, his Oscar-nominated role in Cinderella Man and performances in such movies as American Splendor, Barney’s Version, 12 Years a Slave, Straight Outta Compton, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, San Andreas, Planet of the Apes and Saving Private Ryan.

On the small screen, Giamatti spent seven seasons starring in Billions and previously...

Credit the Swamp Princess for pioneering a new genre.

On Friday, Doechii released her new single “Alter Ego” featuring City Girls’ Jt, and with it, she ushers in a new Eurodance-inspired rap style she’s coined as “editorial rap.”

“I accidentally created my own genre with this one.. this record doesn’t sound like anything out right now,” Doechii said of the song. “I’m so excited for y’all to experience this song, this visual, and this Era with me!”

“When they ask you, tell ’em it’s editorial...

RankFilm (distributor)Three-day gross (Mar 22-24)Total gross to dateWeek 1. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (Sony) £4.1m £4.1m 1 2. Dune: Part Two (Warner Bros) £2.6m £30.7m 4 3. Immaculate (Black Bear) £491,000 £522,000 1 4. Wicked Little Letters (Studiocanal) £373,413 £8.2m 5 5. Migration (Universal) £370,415 £19.5m 8

Sony’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire topped the UK-Ireland box office with a £4.1m opening weekend, ending the three-week run of Dune: Part Two atop the chart.

Opening in 687 sites, Frozen Empire took a £5,904 location average. Its opening was up 7.7% on the £3.8m start of 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the first in a reboot of the franchise in 2021, with that film taking a £5,721 location average.

It is also...

The 2024 Oscars ceremony is history, and in come ways it was historic, as well.

Read on below for answers to all your questions about the 2024 Academy Awards.

When Was The 2024 Oscars?

The ceremony took place on March 10, 2024 at 4 p.m. Pt/7 p.m. Et. The event was broadcast on ABC.

Vanessa Hudgens hosted The Oscars Red Carpet Show. It marked the third Oscars in a row that the actress and singer fronted the official lead-in. She was joined by Dancing With the Stars vet Julianne Hough as co-host. The Oscars Red Carpet Show began at 3:30 p.m. Pt/6:30 p.m. Et.

Who Is Hosted The 2024 Oscars?

Jimmy Kimmel hosted the show, marking the fourth time (and second straight year) that the Jimmy Kimmel Live! mainstay took on the gig. Only Billy Crystal, Johnny Carson and Bob Hope hosted more times.

Related: Oscar Red Carpet Gallery

Who Is Nominated For An Oscar This Year?...

With great power comes great responsibility. It’s a lesson Lucy Boynton (“Bohemian Rhapsody”) grapples with in Searchlight Pictures’ “The Greatest Hits.” The studio released the film’s trailer on Thursday, March 14, 2024.

In “The Greatest Hits,” Harriet (Boynton) finds that listening to certain songs (literally) sweeps her away to another time — like, she becomes an actual time-traveler. She is able to relive special moments with her deceased boyfriend (David Corenswet of “Pearl”), and could potentially even stop the car crash that killed him from even happening. It sounds like there’s a pretty big tradeoff, however, if she takes it to that point.

And then there’s the new guy, played by Justin H. Min (“Beef”), that she meets along the way. “Throughout her journey, Harriet explores the mesmerizing link between music and memory, facing her with difficult decisions of whether altering the past is a choice worth making,” the synopsis reads.

On Jan. 12, screenwriter Simon Stephenson sent an email to the Writers Guild of America’s senior director of credits Lesley Mackey asking to set up a call to discuss an important matter. The CAA-repped writer, whose credits include Pixar’s “Luca” and StudioCanal’s “Paddington 2,” wrote, “I’ve encountered a credits-related issue on quite a high profile WGA-covered project.” According to the email exchange reviewed by Variety, a call between the two took place, and, in a follow-up missive, Stephenson wrote, “the evidence the holdovers screenplay has been plagiarised line-by-line from frisco is genuinely overwhelming – anybody who looks at even the briefest sample pretty much invariably uses the word ‘brazen.’”

Stephenson was referring to his own screenplay “Frisco,” a drama centered on a world-weary middle-aged children’s doctor and the 15-year-old patient he gets stuck looking after, and David Hemingson’s “The Holdovers” — a drama revolving around a...

The 2024 Academy Awards take place this Sunday, March 10th, 2024. We’ve already made our predictions, but who does Vegas think will win?

Below, you can find the latest betting odds from FanDuel. By the look of it, Oppenheimer is in for a very big night.

If you’re interested in betting on this year’s Oscars, FanDuel is offering a $150 bonus bet for all new users, while new BetMGM users will receive a $200 bonus. Note: As of 2024, seven states allow for Oscar betting online: Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, and New Jersey, as well as Puerto Rico and Ontario. If you don’t live in one of those places, do with these betting odds as you will.

Best Picture

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is the overwhelming favorite to win at -5000. That’s not surprising considering the film has cleaned up this awards season by already winning Best Picture at the Golden Globes,...

No two people feel the exact same way about any film. Thus, Team Experience is pairing up to debate the merits of this year’s Oscar movies. Here's Abe Friedtanzer and Cláudio Alves on The Holdovers…

Abe: Cláudio, it is always my pleasure to talk about films with you even though I know our tastes rarely overlap. In fact, when I met you in-person at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, you noted that we were barely seeing any of the same films. I was only in Toronto for three and a half days and saw a whirlwind eighteen films in that time, the best of which was The Holdovers. My editor decided to hold my review for the theatrical release, which proved somewhat underwhelming, but fortunately there was plenty of awards acclaim for the film to keep my enthusiasm up about this gem.

I remember seeing Sideways twenty...

The next time you hear someone complain that they sure don’t make them like they used to, point them in the direction of “Accidental Texan,” an unapologetically old-fashioned feel-good dramedy that, with a few minor tweaks, could pass as a newly rediscovered family-friendly feature from the mid-1970s. Back then, the lead roles probably would have been filled by the likes of, say, Brian Keith and Kurt Russell. Here, Thomas Haden Church (“Sideways”) and Rudy Pankow (Netflix’s “Outer Banks”) do the honors, and they’re at the top of their game, along with supporting players Bruce Dern and Carrie-Anne Moss. Undemandingly entertaining, director Mark Bristol’s well-crafted indie can be savored as a heaping helping of palate-cleansing sherbet, best enjoyed between viewings of bigger and louder but by no means better movies. And yes, that’s meant as a compliment.

Things begin with a bang — several bangs, to...

Alexander Payne movies always do well in two areas come the Oscar nominations: writing and acting. Five of Payne’s movies have been nominated for writing while five of his flicks have also snagged acting bids. However, while “Sideways” and “The Descendants” both took home Oscars for their writing (both for Best Adapted Screenplay), no Payne movie has ever won for acting. Here’s the record.

“About Schmidt” procured a Best Actor nomination in 2003 for Jack Nicholson. He was in a two-horse race for the Best Actor gong with “Gangs of New York” star Daniel Day-Lewis but it was Adrien Brody (“The Pianist”) who ended up winning by splitting the votes. Kathy Bates was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress for “About Schmidt” but she lost to Catherine Zeta-Jones (“Chicago”).

Paul Giamatti was cruelly snubbed for a Best Actor bid for “Sideways” in 2005 but two of his costars were nominated.

For the past six years in a row, the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor has gone to men with more than 35 minutes of screen time in their respective films. Although four of last year’s nominees could have bucked that trend, the academy chose to keep things consistent by honoring Ke Huy Quan’s especially lengthy performance in “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” By appearing in a whopping 58 minutes and 33 seconds (or 42.03%) of the Best Picture winner, he more than comfortably surpassed his category’s screen time average and came within nine minutes of outpacing every previous supporting male victor.

Quan’s performance is the second longest in his film, as he and his Best Actress-winning on-screen wife, Michelle Yeoh, are separated by 36 minutes and 43 seconds (or 26.35%). Directly below him is Stephanie Hsu – who earned a supporting bid as his character’s daughter – at 42:18 (30.36%). Considering all 87 featured male turns that have merited Academy Awards,...

A jam-packed weekend of last-gasp Oscar campaigning — the film Academy’s final round of voting opened on Feb. 22 and will close on Feb. 27 — kicked off on Saturday night with the 30th SAG Awards, the first major awards show ever to be streamed on Netflix. But do Saturday night’s results actually provide reliable clues about what will happen two weeks from Sunday night at the 96th Oscars?

I would argue that they probably do.

SAG Award winners are determined by the roughly 160,000 members of SAG-AFTRA, the world’s largest union of actors, whereas Oscar winners are determined by the roughly 9,500 voting members of the film Academy, 86 percent of whom are not actors, which would suggest that any overlap is purely coincidental.

But it is quite a statement that SAG-AFTRA members voted best actor in a film — which has long looked to be neck-and-neck between Cillian Murphy for Oppenheimer over Paul Giamatti...

The Holdovers collaborators, director Alexander Payne and screenwriter David Hemingson, are working on another film together—a Western, in fact—and during a Q&a following a screening of The Holdovers at Soho House in West Hollywood on Friday, Hemingson revealed there’s a part earmarked for Paul Giamatti.

“I’ve been sworn to secrecy,” Hemingson said, “but what I will say is we’ve written him a part and I hope he’ll do it.”

If Giamatti, who stars in The Holdovers, accepts, it would be his third collaboration with Payne since Sideways in 2004.

Hemingson went on to reveal some details of the new project: “Alexander and I are writing a Western together, so we’re going to co-write something, and it’s set in Nebraska in 1886, and it’s like no Western you have ever seen before, because it’s an Alexander Payne Western. So, all those interpersonal dynamics,...

As of this writing the combined predictions of Gold Derby users lean towards Cillian Murphy (“Oppenheimer”) with 17/5 odds in this year’s Oscar race for Best Actor. Meanwhile, Paul Giamatti (“The Holdovers”) is close behind in second place with 69/20 odds. However, the former may have more going for him. Here are five reasons why I think Murphy is the favorite.

SEEOscars: Will ‘Oppenheimer’ or ‘Poor Things’ win all three design awards?

1. He’s starring in the Best Picture frontrunner

“Oppenheimer” is expected to be quite a juggernaut on Oscar night. It’s currently predicted to take home eight accolades: Best Picture, Best Director (Christopher Nolan), Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr.), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Score and Best Sound. With that in mind, it’s possible that Murphy could be carried along in the sweep. He’s the face of the whole thing and carries the film on his shoulders.

“It genuinely feels like things are happening in real time.”

That’s Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s take on how her wise-beyond-years private school cafeteria lady Mary was able to forge a solid chemistry with Paul Giamatti’s curmudgeon ancient civilizations instructor Paul Hunham in Focus Features’ The Holdovers.

“You’re genuinely seeing their relationship authentically develop,” says Randolph. “I’ve never seen that in a movie like that before.”

Pin it to rehearsals led by director Alexander Payne that got the thespians “a deep performance,” she added during Deadline’s Contenders Film: The Nominees session that also included Giamatti, director Alexander Payne, screenwriter David Hemingson and producer Mark Johnson.

Randolph detailed the scene where Giamatti’s Paul meets up with Mary to watch an episode of The Newlywed Game; the two are stranded over the Christmas break as the only adults in charge at a Massachusetts private school of...

“Oppenheimer” is the juggernaut Oscar contender that is predicted to take home not just Best Picture but a whole bunch of other Academy Awards, too, including Best Director for Christopher Nolan and Best Supporting Actor for Robert Downey Jr. However, we thought that “La La Land” had Best Picture all wrapped up in 2017 but come Oscars night, “Moonlight” swept in to claim the evening’s biggest prize in a shock win. So, is “Oppenheimer” as safe as everyone thinks?

“The Holdovers” is well-poised to pull off an upset. The movie follows Paul Giamatti as a curmudgeonly professor who is forced to look after students staying behind during the Christmas holidays. The film has been a hit with critics, audiences, and awards groups, too.

As such, it could be a major dark horse to win the Oscar for Best Picture. In the last 10 years, four movies have claimed the top prize...

Adding to his awards season accolades, Paul Giamatti was honored with the Cinema Vanguard Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Wednesday, where he sat down for a conversation about his long career and journey to The Holdovers.

In a 75-minute chat moderated by The Hollywood Reporter‘s Scott Feinberg, Giamatti walked the Santa Barbara audience through his pivot from wanting to study primate anthropology to pursuing acting after his father died. He reflected on early roles in Private Parts, Planet of the Apes (“I was really disappointed I couldn’t play a gorilla. I was like, ‘I can’t be a gorilla, why not?’ They’re like, ‘You look more like an orangutan'”) and eventually American Splendor, where he said, “I remember at the time thinking, this is probably the first and last time I’m gonna lead [a movie] like this.”

Despite the critical success of that film,...