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Plot: An epic saga of the various groups who try to settle the ever-expanding horizon of the old West.

Review: Kevin Costner’s Horizon might be the most ambitious movie undertaking since Lord of the Rings. Think about it – Kevin Costner has sunk a huge chunk of his own personal fortune into making an epic Western saga, with a second movie only weeks away from hitting theatres, regardless of whether or not the first makes him any money. If that weren’t enough, he’s already started shooting pieces of the third film, and he’s sworn he’ll be making a fourth film as well. Given the scope of his ambitions, it’s hard to truly judge Horizon – Chapter 1 as a standalone film, with it so clearly part of a much bigger whole.

Running three hours (with credits), Costner, who also directed, produced and co-wrote the film (with Jon Baird...

Variety has a first look at “The Damned,” the upcoming psychological horror starring Odessa Young and Joe Cole.

From director Thordur Palsson (“The Valhalla Murders”) and writer Jamie Hannigan, the film, which shot in Iceland last year, follows Eva (Young), a 19th-century widow who is tasked with making an impossible choice when a ship sinks off the coast of her isolated fishing outpost in the middle of an especially cruel winter. According to the synopsis, “Eva and her crew must choose between rescuing the shipwrecked and prioritising their own survival. Facing the consequences of their choice and tormented by their guilt, the inhabitants wrestle with a mounting sense of dread and begin to believe they are all being punished for their choices.”

Alongside Young and Cole, the cast also includes Siobhan Finneran (“Happy Valley,” “The Stranger”), Rory McCann (“Game of Thrones,” “Slow West”), Turlough Convery (“Killing Eve,” “Belfast”), Lewis Gribben (“Somewhere Boy,...

Earlier this year, Max announced it would be housing over 200 episodes of AMC Networks’ television at no additional cost to subscribers beginning in September.

That two-month window is coming to an end, so you’ll want to catch up on “Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire” Season 1; “Dark Winds” Season 1; “Gangs of London” Seasons 1 and 2; “Fear the Walking Dead” Seasons 1-7; “Killing Eve” Seasons 1-4; “A Discovery of Witches” Seasons 1-3; and “Ride with Norman Reedus” Seasons 1-5 while you still can.

A number of great horror titles are leaving at the end of October as well, including: “A Cabin in the Woods,” “Beetlejuice,” “Eight Legged Freaks,” “From Hell,” “It” and “It: Chapter 2,” and several more. They’ll be great to put on while you host your Halloween bash.

Here’s everything leaving Max in October 2023.

October 3

Rx Early Detection: A Cancer Journey with Sandra Lee (2018) (HBO)

October...

A series premiere, a long-awaited season return and a bevy of great movies are new on HBO and HBO Max this month. May 1 marks the series debut of “White House Plumbers,” the new limited series from “Veep” showrunner David Mandel that chronicles the Watergate break-in and fallout. That show airs on HBO and will stream on HBO Max. Then on May 4, the comedy “The Other Two” returns for its third season on HBO Max.

The sixth season of the animated series “Rick and Morty” will be available to stream on HBO Max starting on May 11, and in terms of library titles the “Men in Black” trilogy, the comedies “Step Brothers” and “Some Like It Hot” and Jonah Hill’s directorial debut “Mid90s” all come to HBO and HBO Max this month.

Also Read:

The Best Movies on HBO Max Right Now May 1:

Absolute Power, 1997 (HBO)

Alpha Dog, 2006 (HBO)

American Honey,...

Wait a minute, you might be asking, isn’t HBO Max supposed to be “Max” now? How then, am I seeing a list of HBO Max new releases for May 2023? Well spotted, dear reader. Warner Bros. Discovery did indeed recently reveal that it would be rebranding its combined HBO Max and Discovery+ streaming service as just Max. As the company notes in its press release for May though, that change doesn’t take effect until May 23. What follows is a list of everything coming to HBO Max through May 22.

The biggest releases this month are two TV series that arrive at the beginning of May. White House Plumbers is a comedic take on the infamous Watergate scandal starring Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux. That will be followed by season 3 of The Other Two, which I personally consider the funniest show on television. Catch up now before it’s too late!

HBO Max will officially be replaced by Warner Bros. Discovery on May 23 with a new and improved service called Max. However, that doesn’t mean the service is scrimping on content until then. One of the biggest new releases of the month is the new limited series “White House Plumbers,” which will premiere on May 1. Starring Woody Harrelson as E. Howard Hunt and Justin Theroux as G. Gordon Liddy, the pair portray two real-life Watergate burglars and Nixon saboteurs who ended up destroying the very president they desperately wanted to serve.

Check out the “White House Plumbers” trailer:

The platform will head to the pitch on May 16 with a three-part soccer docuseries “Angel City.” The series goes behind the scenes with the groundbreaking Los Angeles-based professional women’s soccer team, Angel City Football Club. It reveals the origin story through the 2022 inaugural season of the female-founded and led team — including owners and investors Uzo Aduba,...

Exclusive: Brian Cox (Succession), Kelly Reilly (Yellowstone), Brooklynn Prince (Cocaine Bear) and Che Tafari (Me Time) are set to lead Little Wing, a new Paramount+ coming-of-age film from Awesomeness, which DGA Award nominee Dean Israelite (Are You Afraid of the Dark?) is directing from a script by Oscar nom John Gatins (Flight).

The film now in production in Oregon, which has been a passion project for Israelite over the past decade, is inspired by the New Yorker article of the same name by Susan Orlean. This is the story of Kaitlyn (Prince), a 13-year-old girl who, reeling from her parents’ divorce and the pending loss of her home, is drawn into the world of pigeon racing. She hopes to solve her family’s financial woes by stealing a valuable bird, but instead forms a bond with the owner who cultivates her love of the sport.

Cox plays Jaan, the pigeon racer,...

When the Oscar nominations came out earlier this year, we saw the literal luck of the Irish (at least in terms of nods). For starters, British-Irish filmmaker Martin McDonagh’s acclaimed black comedy The Banshees of Inisherin garnered nine nominations including Best Picture, Best Actor for Colin Farrell, and Best Original Screenplay. Additionally, the in-demand heartthrob Paul Mescal earned a Best Actor nomination for Aftersun while The Quiet Girl represents Ireland in Best International Feature, becoming the country’s first film to do so.

It was a good day in January for Irish representation, although how things shook out later on Oscar night might be the flip side of that luck.

Nonetheless, to mark this particular occasion, along with St. Patrick’s Day, below is a list of eleven recommended modern films that are at least co-produced by Ireland and which chiefly take place on the Emerald Isle for those...

Paul Mescal was undoubtedly the star attraction on the opening night of the Dublin International Film Festival on Thursday.

The local boy — almost, he’s from Maynooth, 24 kilometers to the west of the Irish capital — marked his first appearance at the event for the curtain-raising Irish psychological drama God’s Creatures, in which he stars alongside Emily Watson. But he also hit the red carpet at Dublin’s Light House Cinema not just as a freshly minted Oscar and BAFTA nominee for Aftersun and one of the most in-demand actors around (Ridley Scott recently tapped him for his Gladiator sequel), but as someone who, the last time the festival was held as a fully in-person event without pandemic restrictions in February 2020, literally hadn’t even been seen onscreen yet. His breakout, Normal People, was released just a few months later.

The first people Mescal greeted at the opener were his parents,...

Movie star John Wayne and director John Ford became one of the most iconic filmmaker and actor duos ever to move through Hollywood. It all started with their fateful meeting when Wayne worked as a prop man at Fox, where their personalities quickly hit it off. They would later go on to collaborate on 14 movies together, although the list would be longer if one was to count the times they helped one another in lesser capacities.

‘Stagecoach’ (1939) L-r: Claire Trevor as Dallas and John Wayne as Ringo Kid | Getty Images

A group of unlikely travelers find themselves on a stagecoach headed for Lordsburg, New Mexico, in the 1880s. The arrival of an escaped outlaw named the Ringo Kid (Wayne) shakes up their adventure, as they face riding through dangerous Apache territory.

Wayne played his first leading role in Raoul Walsh’s The Big Trail in 1930, but the actor’s career...

Irish producer Flynn also worked on ‘The Last Duel’, ‘Calvary’.

Irish producer James Flynn of Metropolitan Films, whose credits include the Bafta and Oscar-nominated The Banshees Of Inisherin, has died aged 57 following an illness.

Flynn founded production company Metropolitan Films in 1997 with his wife Juanita Wilson, and had credits through the company on titles including Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel and hit romantic comedies P.S. I Love You and Love Rosie.

His death was first reported in The Irish Times.

Flynn was a co-producer on Martin McDonagh’s drama The Banshees Of Inisherin for Searchlight Pictures. It has...

Irish film producer James Flynn has died. He was 57 and his death was reported by the Irish Times, which did not provide details.

Credited on Alan Parker’s Angela’s Ashes, Joel Schumacher’s Veronica Guerin and John Michael McDonagh’s Calvary, Flynn was a part of the reconstituted Irish Film Board.

Related Story Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2023: Photo Gallery & Obituaries Related Story London Critics' Circle Awards: 'The Banshees of Inisherin' & 'Tár' Win Top Prizes Related Story 'Everything Everywhere All At Once,' 'Women Talking' Among Oscar Best Picture Nominees Rallying At Weekend Box Office

The news comes as Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin, on which Flynn worked as co-producer, has nine Oscar nominations for next month’s Academy Awards.

Oscar-nominated producer Ed Guiney, who worked with Flynn on Sweety Barrett more than two decades ago, remembered him for the Irish Times.

I went into The Banshees of Inisherin expecting something special. The last time writer/director Martin McDonagh worked with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson resulted in In Bruges (2008), by far McDonagh's best film. The Banshess of Inisherin proved to be more than special. It's one of the very best films of the year. In fact, I'll say it. It's a stronger film overall than even In Bruges. I would place it alongside his brother John Michael McDonagh's Calvary (2014) and call it a perfect double feature. One is about friendship and the other about faith but both take place in an Ireland where either of those things can be about life and death. Pádraic (Colin Farrell) and Colm (Brendan Gleeson) are two lifelong friends on...

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

Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain play a couple en route to a weekend of debauchery in the desert in this morality tale from John Michael McDonagh

Beneath the garishly brittle portrait of ghastly westerners lording it up in Morocco, there’s a low-key, brooding quality to this accomplished if somewhat inert screen adaptation of Lawrence Osborne’s 2012 bestseller. Written and directed by John Michael McDonagh, whose screen CV includes The Guard (2011), Calvary (2014) and War on Everyone (2016), it’s an anxiously moralist tale of crime and punishment, revenge and resolution, played out against a broad-strokes, culture-clash backdrop that brings a tang of spiteful satire to the deeper discussions of good and evil.

“It’s a long way to go for a party, but then they’re more your friends than mine.” So says David (Ralph Fiennes), a British doctor with a blemished record whom we first meet aboard a boat to “l’Afrique” with his wife,...

Fans of John Michael McDonagh should find much to love in the writer/director’s fourth feature, The Forgiven, but it lacks the refined structure, likeable characters and charred heart of his earlier work.

Based on a novel by Lawrence Osborne, The Forgiven tells the tale of stuck-up, married couple, David (Ralph Fiennes) and Jo (Jessica Chastain), who travel to Morocco to attend a lavish party thrown by wealthy friends, Richard (Matt Smith) and Dally (Caleb Landry Jones). En route, David accidentally runs over a teenage boy, Driss (Omar Ghazaoui), and is forced to face repercussions of the event while partying with pals. The police are convinced it was an accident but when the late boy’s father, Abdellah (Ismael Kanetar) arrives, David is forced to accompany him to help bury his son and face further consequences.

McDonagh’s latest is, for the most part, engrossing with striking performances from its A-list cast,...

Director John Michael McDonagh, author Lawrence Osborne and the stars of the film discuss personal salvation, simplistic critics and why ‘you can’t build a culture out of non-stop moral hysteria’

Everyone loved John Michael McDonagh’s first film, The Guard, with Brendan Gleeson as a sloshed cop. They admired his second, Calvary, in which Gleeson played a priest reconciled to his own murder. His third, a black comedy with Alexander Skarsgård and Michael Peña, was mostly loathed. McDonagh anticipated these reactions, he says in a pub in south London. He had assumed people would like his first two, “and War on Everyone was meant to be divisive”.

So he would be forgiven for having felt perky before the premiere last year of his fourth film. “I love watching the film!” he says. It’s an old-fashioned noir: tense, starry, good-looking. “So I was like: Everyone’s going to love it.

Dir: John Michael McDonagh. Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Jessica Chastain, Matt Smith, Ismael Kanater, Caleb Landry Jones, Abbey Lee. 18, 117 minutes.

At what point does art’s stubborn (though not invalid) fascination with the inner mechanics of terrible people cross a line, and begin demanding we show mercy towards the truly irredeemable among us? It’s the problem that lies at the heart of The Forgiven, a somewhat on-the-nose title for a film that lines up for us a miniature troupe of the wealthy and perversely bigoted at leisure in Morocco, who feel free to say horrific things about the local population because they’re shielded behind the walls of a literal castle. The only Moroccans they speak to on a daily basis are the ones whose wages they pay. We watch these one-percenters scurry about like termites, spewing their awfulness, before one of their number undergoes a moral awakening and we...

Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson’s Rogue Agent star James Norton with Anne-Katrin Titze: “We didn’t want it to feel like a predictable charm, the kind of suave spies in the James Bond vein.”

In Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson’s percipient Rogue Agent we first encounter James Norton (the tutor John Brooke in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women and Oliver Ashford in Amma Asante’s Belle) as Robert Freegard in the process of applying for a job as bartender in a rural English pub, located near a small agricultural college.

Robert Freegard (James Norton) with Alice Archer (Gemma Arterton) listen to The Cure (Just Like Heaven) and he does a “bad-dance” to George Michael’s Faith.” Photo: Nick Briggs, IFC Films

Shot by Larry Smith, the year is 1993, the Ira bombings flood the news and we learn that MI5 is recruiting freelance spies to inform on those suspected of plotting terrorist activities.

Some actors slip into familiar roles like old sweaters. Emily Watson might prefer a raincoat. The actress first graced our screens in Breaking the Waves for Lars von Trier: her eyes peeking out from under a wooly hat, whipped by wind and rain, and carrying the sins of an entire town. The great actress faces those same elements again in God’s Creatures, trading von Trier’s nightmarish vision of the Scottish highlands for a doom metal take on Ireland’s Atlantic coast.

Written by Shane Crowley in collaboration with the producer Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly, God’s Creatures tells a story about sexual assault and collective denial that is as universal as it is inseparable from its locale. The film is directed by Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer, American filmmakers whose brilliant 2016 debut The Fits showcased a true flair for building suspense, not to mention an appreciation for shared psychosis...

John Michael McDonagh hasn’t had a film out since 2016’s “War On Everyone.” Now, the director behind “Calvary” and “Ned Kelly” returns with a class-based thriller in Morocco’s High Atlas Mountains.

Read More: ‘The Forgiven’: Ralph Fiennes Shines In John Michael McDonagh’s Latest Effort [TIFF Review]

“The Forgiven” stars Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain as a wealthy couple on the way to a lavish party that have a chance accident on the road and must deal with the consequences when their attempt to cover it up goes wrong.

Continue reading ‘The Forgiven’ Trailer: Ralph Fiennes & Jessica Chastain Star In John Michael McDonagh’s Latest Drama at The Playlist.

"There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide." Roadside Attractions + Vertical Ent. have revealed the official trailer for an indie film titled The Forgiven, the latest from filmmaker John Michael McDonagh. This premiered at last year's Toronto Film Festival to some mixed reviews, but I'm still curious to give it a look when it opens this summer. The Forgiven takes place over a weekend in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco, and explores the reverberations of a random accident on the lives of both the local Muslims, and Western visitors to a house party in a grand villa. Ralph Fiennes & Jessica Chastain star as wealthy Londoners on a trip to a party at a lavish villa, who end up in trouble after a tragic accident with a local teenage boy. The full cast also includes Matt Smith, Ismael Kanater, Caleb Landry Jones, Abbey Lee, with Saïd Taghmaoui and Christopher Abbott. This...

Apple TV+’s new series “The Essex Serpent” isn’t easy to explain in a quick pitch. The drama, led by Tom Hiddleston and Claire Danes, grapples with big issues, wrapped in a story of mystery and emotion that examines love in all its forms, the battle between science and faith, and so much more.

Nonetheless, Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast asks Hiddleston to give his own synopsis, and he manages to pull it off in 35 seconds — and it’s a pretty good description that even includes the impressive phrase “Gothic opacity.”

Hiddleston spoke to the podcast about both “The Essex Serpent” and his earlier turn as the star of Disney+’s Marvel series “Loki,” as well as having a milestone birthday during the pandemic and so much more. He also took part in a quiz where the actor had to guess between the characters of Shakespeare and Marvel. Listen below!

HBO and HBO Max will be home to new original films, highly anticipated streaming debuts of new releases, and the finales of three popular series throughout February. Below, we’ve assembled a complete list of everything new on HBO and HBO Max in February 2022, and it includes a new thriller from director Steven Soderbergh and starring Zoe Kravitz called “Kimi.” The original feature takes place in a Covid-19 pandemic Seattle and follows an agoraphobic tech worker who discovers violent crimes have occurred in a data stream. The Max Original film premieres on Feb. 10.

Also coming in February is the “Raised by Wolves” Season 2 premiere on Feb. 3, with new episodes released weekly, as well as the season premiere of “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” on Feb. 20. And coming to a close in February are the original series “Euphoria,” “And Just Like That…” and “Peacemaker,” which all air finales this month.

For its list of new releases of February 2022, HBO Max is bringing back one of its biggest original series.

The Ridley Scott-directed sci-fi epic Raised by Wolves helped launch HBO Max back in 2020 and now it’s finally back for another season. Raised by Wolves season 2 premieres with three episodes on Feb. 3. This season will continue the conflict between future atheists and theists on a remote planet, while two androids raise some kids.

February 2022 also sees the end of another, more recent HBO Max hit. Peacemaker airs its finale on Feb. 17. Thankfully that same day sees the premiere of another exciting original. Dream Raider is a Mandarin-language sci-fi thriller that carries some big Inception vibes.

There aren’t many original movies of note this month, but there are a lot of recent hits coming to HBO Max as library titles. Nightmare Alley arrives on Feb. 1, followed by The Many Saints of Newark on Feb.

If the vision of Jessica Chastain in a sleek Lbd sniffing coke and then vigorously bedding Christopher Abbott during a bacchanal in Morocco stokes your flames, then John Michael McDonagh’s “The Forgiven” is the movie for you. “I wish I wasn’t so worried,” she says before jubilantly downing another line of white powder. She wishes she were more worried about her husband, played by Ralph Fiennes, a selfish doctor who, during their now-derailed vacation stay at an old-time friend’s deliciously depraved party in the desert, has run over a Muslim child and failed to cover it up. She wishes she cared that he’s now been carted off to the boy’s Berber village in middle-of-nowhere North Africa to do penance by the kid’s father, and where he could possibly be hung and quartered. Will she miss him at all?

Working from a novel by Lawrence Osborne,...

Have you ever noticed how, in Western culture, when referring to someone’s death, writers feel obliged to insert the word “tragic” somewhere in the sentence? Is there any other kind, a reader might rightly ask. Sometimes they mean “unexpected,” a kind of shorthand intended to show that the life in question was cut short before its time. But just as often, the phrase “tragic death” is simply redundant, a trite cliché intended to signify that the speaker isn’t some callous bastard.

Writer-director John Michael McDonagh recognizes that not all deaths are tragic. Some are merciful, others accidental; while many are unfortunate, on some occasions, people meet an end that could be described as “poetic” — or at the least, deserved. McDonagh (like younger brother Martin) is a brute-force moralist. Both siblings write scripts in which the term “reckoning” often applies, which is to say, movies and plays where atonement...

What if you were an international star who’d had a supporting role in two of the biggest franchises of all time, then you went on to deliver the best performance of your career in a tough, tiny British drama, and hardly anybody noticed? Chances are, Orlando Bloom has been asking himself some version of that question for the last three years.

That’s how long it’s been since he played Malky, a lapsed Catholic tormented by childhood sexual abuse, in “Retaliation,” a remarkably nuanced alternative to the grudge-bearing revenge genre from a pair of first-time feature directors, siblings Ludwig and Paul Shammasian. “Retaliation” was virtually overlooked when it premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival back in 2017, landing distribution in a few foreign countries (presumably on the basis of Bloom’s involvement), only to surface now as one of the many pandemic releases so micro, they may as well not exist.

Warning: The following contains spoilers for Tuesday’s eventful Greenleaf — so many, in fact, that if you keep reading and haven’t watched yet, the episode won’t have any surprises left in store for you!

How sweet it is! In Tuesday’s episode of Greenleaf, Charity finally got so sick of Judee’s condescending nonsense that she responded to being fired by quitting. Not only that, but she also helped Grace set in motion a chain of events that could help the Greenleafs save Calvary from being bulldozed. Now if the family could just do something about the potential loss of their enviable estate…...

Louisiana native Lynn Whitfield has been portraying strong female characters, many of them Southern, throughout much of her career — from HBO’s 1991 biopic “The Josephine Baker Story,” which she won an Emmy for, to “Eve’s Bayou” six years later, as well as numerous memorable TV roles in “Mistresses,” “How to Get Away with Murder,” and “The Women of Brewster Place.”

In her current role, she plays the fierce and fiery Lady Mae Greenleaf (Mae McCready), one of the lead protagonists and anti-heroine of the OWN drama series “Greenleaf.” She plays Bishop James Greenleaf’s ex-wife, family matriarch, and the former First Lady of Calvary Fellowship megachurch.

Viewers were first introduced to Lady Mae in 2016, when the series premiered, as the queen who reigned over her family and business. Since then, fans of the series have been entertained by all kinds of lies, deceit and struggle within the Greenleaf family and their Calvary Fellowship World Ministries.

Russia's film promotion body Roskino on Tuesday unveiled the program for the Key Buyers Event, its virtual content market presenting more than 300 projects from over 120 companies. 

The digital market will run June 8-5 and will feature live presentations, panel discussions and cultural events, along with pitching sessions for dozens of film, TV and animation projects looking for international co-production partners. Rising Russian actress Anna Chipovskaya (Road to Calvary) has been signed up as an ambassador.

Buyers and producers from more than 40 countries, including Rtl, AMC Networks, Mars Cgv, Wild Bunch, Beta Film, Koch Media and ...

Russia's film promotion body Roskino on Tuesday unveiled the program for the Key Buyers Event, its virtual content market presenting more than 300 projects from over 120 companies. 

The digital market will run June 8-5 and will feature live presentations, panel discussions and cultural events, along with pitching sessions for dozens of film, TV and animation projects looking for international co-production partners. Rising Russian actress Anna Chipovskaya (Road to Calvary) has been signed up as an ambassador.

Buyers and producers from more than 40 countries, including Rtl, AMC Networks, Mars Cgv, Wild Bunch, Beta Film, Koch Media and ...

We often talk about how busy actors like Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson have been recently, but we surely shouldn’t leave Jessica Chastain out of the conversation. Not only did the actress have two films arrive in 2019 (“Dark Phoenix” and “It: Chapter 2”), but she has a slate of upcoming films that will keep her on the big screen on an almost regular basis.

Continue reading Jessica Chastain In Talks To Star Opposite Ralph Fiennes In ‘The Forgiven’ From The Director Of ‘Calvary’ at The Playlist.

The High Court in Ireland heard this week that a German film company may seek an injunction over plans to make Vikings: Valhalla, Netflix’s recently revealed sequel to hit series Vikings.

Lawyers for Berlin-based W2 Filmproduktion said on Thursday that W2 may seek an injunction as part of its ongoing action against Vikings producers Morgan O’Sullivan and James Flynn of Octagon Films, which is also a producer on the spin-off series.

W2 has alleged the producers have diverted around €40M out of Octagon, of which they are shareholders. The case, which began in 2016, returned to court this week. O’Sullivan and Flynn strongly deny W2’s allegations.

During Thursday’s proceedings, lawyers for W2 told the court the company had only learned about the Vikings spin-off through the media. W2 claims the fees generated from the original series are a central issue in the action and that it fears...

Exclusive: Kaniehtiio Horn, Zahn McClarnon, Lily Sullivan and David Wilmot are set as series regulars opposite David Thewlis in Barkskins, National Geographic’s scripted drama series based on the 2016 bestselling novel of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Proulx. The series hails from Elwood Reid and Fox 21 TV Studios.

Created by Reid, Barkskins follows a disparate group of outcasts who must navigate the brutal hardships, competing interests, and tangled loyalties at the crossroads of civilization—1600s New France—where the war to escape their past and re-make themselves is cast against the vast and unforgiving wilds of North America.

Horn will play Mari, a Wendat Nation woman married to Trepagny (Thewlis) and her alliance with him keeps both the French and Wendat communities safe from a mutual enemy.

McClarnon will portray Yvon,...

Gary Duncan, guitarist and vocalist of the influential San Francisco psychedelic rock band Quicksilver Messenger Service, has died at the age of 72.

Quicksilver Messenger Service bassist David Freiberg confirmed Duncan’s death to Rolling Stone. According to Best Classic Bands, Duncan died Saturday in Woodland, California after suffering a seizure and falling into a coma.

“I’ve always thought of Gary as the engine of the original four-piece group,” Freiberg told Rolling Stone. “He kind of taught me by osmosis, as I was a folkie 12-string guitar finger-picker, how to...

Mark Harrison Apr 19, 2019

As Monty Python’s heretical hit returns to cinemas for its 40th anniversary, we look back at a quintessential Easter comedy.

This article comes from Den of Geek UK.

There aren't a whole lot of Easter movies. It would be odd if there was, really. Sitting somewhere in between kids' films like Hop or the Easter Bunny bits of Rise Of The Guardians, and more violent fare like Mel Gibson's The Passion Of The Christ and the far more emotionally gruelling John Michael McDonagh film Calvary, (or 'The Passion Of The Brendan Gleeson') your best bet is Monty Python's Life Of Brian, which is back in cinemas for its 40th anniversary.

For those who've never seen it, the film stars Graham Chapman as a man called Brian Cohen, who was once a teenager called Brian, and a boy called Brian, and so on. Born on Christmas...

The 2019 recipients of the Oscar Wilde Award, now in its 14th year, amply embody the values of sponsoring organization the U.S.-Ireland Alliance, created by Trina Vargo “with a vision,” as she puts it, “of making an old relationship contemporary, and inclusive.”

Slated to be feted on Feb. 21 at J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot HQ in Santa Monica are part-Irish Glenn Close, as well as Ireland-born Aidan Gillen and Chris O’Dowd. Each one’s resume would surely inspire an appreciative nod from any Hibernian. In addition, each has contributed to an important — and remarkably timely — Irish-set film of this decade: Close starred in and co-wrote 2011’s gender-shifting Victorian fable “Albert Nobbs,” while the men played in 2014’s examination of clergy abuse’s legacy, “Calvary.”

Close earned a 1982 Obie for playing the biological female posing as a male hotel butler. “I never forgot her,” the star says. “It basically took...

These days, it takes a lot for an actor to resist talks of revisiting a beloved film or TV project. But Chris O’Dowd seems convinced that the team behind “Bridesmaids” got it right the first time. When he swung by the the IndieWire Studio presented by Dropbox, O’Dowd said that the idea of revisiting the 2011 film has never really caught on for him and star Kristen Wiig.

“I see Kristen all the time, we became quite close after. But we never really talk about it,” O’Dowd said. “I feel like we did such a good job with it, that it would probably only go downhill.”

Still, that didn’t stop O’Dowd from pitching an off-the-cuff sequel idea involving one of the film’s very famous fans.

“I saw Saoirse Ronan the other day, saying that she was desperate to be in a ‘Bridesmaids’ sequel. So we...

Screen Ireland’s chief executive James Hickey will be moving on at the end of his current term in June 2019. Hickey served an initial five-year period from 2011 with an extension of three years granted in 2016.

Commenting on his decision Hickey said, “It has been an honour and a privilege for me to serve Ireland’s film, TV and animation community since 2011. Eight years later, the tax incentive for the Irish film and screen industries has been extended to 2024, our capital funding has increased from €11.2M to €16.2M and there is a strong commitment from Government to provide €200M in funding to Screen Ireland over the ten-year period from 2018-2027.

“The international reputation of the creative talent working in the Irish film and screen industries has grown and strengthened over the last number of years. A strong body of work has been created, which I believe better reflects the wide diversity...

Roberto Andò on Connie Nielsen's character Claire: "I based her on someone like J.K. Rowling but also on others who have become hugely wealthy through their writing" Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

At his hotel on Central Park South, director Roberto Andò discussed with me the connections to Alfred Hitchcock's I Confess and Torn Curtain in his latest film, which character was inspired by Jk Rowling, the majestic location where he filmed, and how "evil serves no purpose."

The Confessions (Le Confessioni), co-written by Angelo Pasquini, shot by Maurizio Calvesi, and starring Toni Servillo (Paolo Sorrentino's Oscar-winning The Great Beauty and Andò's Viva La Libertà) has an exceptional ensemble cast including Connie Nielsen (Patty Jenkins's Wonder Woman), Marie-Josée Croze (John Michael McDonagh's Calvary), Daniel Auteuil (Michael Haneke's Caché), Moritz Bleibtreu (Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run), Lambert Wilson (Jérôme Salle's L'Odyssée), Pierfrancesco Favino (Roger Michell...

Exclusive: Writer-director John Michael McDonagh and his House of Un-American Activities, which he runs with producing partner Elizabeth Eves, has signed with CAA. He is perhaps best known for his 2014 film Calvary, which garnered McDonagh the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival, and four more British Independent Film Awards nominations with a win for Brendan Gleeson as Best Actor. It was released in North America by Fox Searchlight. His most recent film, War…...

Mr. Mercedes is a weird story, and it makes for an even weirder TV adaptation, but working against convention has helped Stephen King get where he is, and TV could probably use a lot more of the idea.

The show opens with a mass killing as a man drives a stolen Mercedes through a crowd waiting to get into a job fair. Bill Hodges (Brendan Gleeson) is one of the detectives on the case and getting justice for the 16 people who were killed becomes a mission that consumes him. We jump two years into the future and Hodges has retired, but Mr. Mercedes (Harry Treadaway) isn’t done with him yet. Sending him taunting messages, Mr. Mercedes is after tormenting Hodges as much as possible, and Hodges is now even more desperate to capture him.

What’s unique about the show is that we get such an in-depth look at our killer,...

“Get Shorty” might be about Hollywood, but is it a satire? Star Chris O’Dowd thinks so.

“Poking fun at truth is satire,” he said. “Us trying to extricate those things that we find ridiculous about Hollywood and putting them on film satirizes it. But we don’t have to fake it.”

The Epix original drama, the first three episodes of which can be watched online now, is “inspired by” the Elmore Leonard novel and subsequent Barry Sonnenfeld film. But, a la “Fargo,” the show has put its own spin on the material, creating the character of Miles (O’Dowd), a gangster who decides to pursue a new path in life after getting a taste of the Hollywood scene.

Read More‘Get Shorty’ Trailer: Chris O’Dowd and Ray Romano Star in New Epix Dark Comedy

It’s an area that O’Dowd thinks has a lot of potential. “There...

The star of Hampstead and Alone in Berlin on his Flann O’Brien obsession, the most thrilling piece of theatre he’s ever seen, and discovering Caravaggio

Born in Dublin in 1955, Brendan Gleeson worked as a secondary school teacher of Irish and English before turning to acting full-time in 1991. He is best known for his roles in Calvary, In Bruges and The Guard. He has also appeared in Braveheart, Cold Mountain, 28 Days Later, Gangs of New York, and the Harry Potter films. His portrayal of Winston Churchill in the television film Into the Storm won him an Emmy award in 2009, and he has been nominated for three Golden Globes. Two of his four sons, Domhnall and Brian Gleeson, are also actors. Gleeson stars opposite Emma Thompson in Alone in Berlin, based on Hans Fallada’s second world war novel, and in Hampstead, both out now.

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Author: Stefan Pape

Though hardly a regular in the romantic comedy genre, Brendan Gleeson could not have been left in better hands, collaborating with one of the true innovators of the genre, Diane Keaton – as the pair share the screen in Joel Hopkins’ Hampstead.

We had the pleasure of speaking to the affable Irish star, on the glorious sense of unpredictability that comes with working with Keaton, and whether this experience has changed the way he now watches her movies. Gleeson also discusses his diverse range of projects, which has Paddington 2 coming up (we can’t wait for that) while we also asked for an update on the third and final endeavour in the aptly named ‘glorified suicide’ trilogy alongside John Michael McDonagh, following The Guard and Calvary.

Watch the full interview below…

Our good friends at Cameo – and in this instance, Phoebe Winter, spoke to Diane Keaton too...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

Beauty and the Beast (Bill Condon)

The near-ubiquitous familiarity with the majority of Disney animations make the financial proposition of a live-action remake a no-brainer greenlight. In aiming to appeal to those experiencing these stories for the first time, the generation prior, and the generation that brought that generation to the theater, it can also be as creatively risk-averse as one might imagine. As these cultural touchstones get dusted...

Boyd Holbrook is set to star in Bliss Media's Two/One, from Argentine director Juan Cabral, which Protagonist Pictures is unveiling to buyers at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival. Bliss Media's Wei Han (Jackie), RedRum Films' Chris Clark (All the Money in the World, Legend) and Flora Fernandez Marengo (Calvary) will produce, along with Dave Valleau for South Creek Pictures. Bliss Media is fully financing and handling Chinese distribution rights while Protagonist Pictures…...

This Week in Home Video‘Toni Erdmann’ Suggests It’s Time to Get Naked With Your Co-WorkersPlus 17 more new releases to watch at home this week on Blu-ray/DVD.

Welcome to this week in home video! Click the title to buy a Blu-ray/DVD from Amazon and help support Fsr in the process!

Pick of the WeekToni Erdmann

What is it? A professional woman and her oddball father dance around their complicated relationship, both in and out of costumes.

Why buy it? Family dysfunction is a longtime staple in cinema, but no film this year captured it with such humor, warmth, and wisdom as Maren Ade’s third feature. Even at 162 minutes our time with Ines and her oddball father feels far too short as their journey of discovery becomes one we don’t want to see end. There’s an honesty here — yes, even with subtitles — about the way we see ourselves through our loved ones...

Standin’ at the station, don’t know what to say? Starin’ out the window as you’re rollin’ away? Don’t worry — we can always come back to TVLine Mixtape: This Is Us edition.

RelatedThis Is Us @ PaleyFest: The Cast on That Finale Fight and Jack’s Death

In a single season, NBC’s hit drama managed to deliver a wide range of heart-wrenching, gut-punching emotions. We laughed, we cried, we obsessively searched for fan theories. And the show’s music played an integral role in warming our hearts (and exhausting our Kleenex reserves).

If you’re ready to...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

A Bigger Splash (Luca Guadagnino)

Despite a loose script that justifies little, Italian director Luca Guadagnino’s follow-up feature to his glorious melodrama I Am Love is a sweaty, kinetic, dangerously unpredictable ride of a film. One is frustrated by the final stroke of genius that never came, but boy was it fun to spend two hours inside such a whirlwind of desires, mind games, delirious sights and sounds.