Movie News

Russell Crowe is ready to be entertained by “Gladiator 2” but confirmed he will not be involved in its production. Which makes sense because, of course, his character died at the end of the original film.

The Oscar winner revealed during RTÉ Radio One’s “The Ryan Tubridy Show” show that Ridley Scott and the sequel team have not “brought anything up” to Crowe “in a while.” The sequel stars Paul Mescal as an older version of Lucius, the nephew of since-deceased Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) who was killed by Crowe’s Maximus. Lucius is the son of Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) and grandson of Marcus Aurelius. Denzel Washington and Barry Keoghan are also in talks to star.

The follow-up is set to take place 20 years after the original film.

“I’m sure at some point in time they’ll want to ask me about something, but they haven’t brought anything up in a while,

Spring is officially here, and it’s time for Netflix to refresh its library for April. Though we will be seeing a lot of new features and some highly anticipated movies in the coming month, there is also an overwhelming list of great titles that will be leaving the streamer. So, if you are on the lookout for some great films, we got you covered for April. This time around, we have quite a few classics from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, including some award-winning, critically acclaimed features. Without spoiling what’s in store for you, let’s dig right into our best picks for the month and catch them before they disappear from the streaming platform for good.

The hotly anticipated first trailer for director Mani Ratnam’s Ponniyin Selvan: II was released at a grand, star-studded event in Chennai, India, on Wednesday. Ps: II is a follow-up to Ratnam’s blockbuster Ponniyin Selvan: I, which was released to positive reviews in September. At the time, Ratnam had promised that the second part, which was shot back-to-back with the first, would arrive within nine months.

Over the last number of years, it has been an amazing time to be a Spider-Man fan. Whether it be in live-action, animation, or video games the web-head has been living his best superhero life. That looks to continue with the release of the highly anticipated film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. The sequel to the hit Oscar-winning animated film will once again follow Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) and Gwen Stacy aka Ghost-Spider (Hailee Steinfeld) in another crazy multiverse adventure. Now to coincide with the film's summer release, Sony Pictures Animation and Imageworks will also be releasing a new Spider-Verse short, The Spider Within, that will debut at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival this June.

Veteran film producer Bob Yari (“Crash”) and music executive turned content maker Marvin Peart have formed WonderHill Studios, a film and production entity that will also offer independent theatrical distribtuion.

Yari and Peat privately raised equity for the new company, for which they will serve as co-founders and co-CEOs. The label will also dabble in film acquisitions and rights sales to foreign territories.

“WonderHill Studios is eager to fill a crucial hole within the theatrical and television space, while also focusing on diversity in cinema and television in front and behind the camera. We are dedicated to building a diverse C-suite, and delivering quality independent films to the theatrical marketplace,” Yari said.

Peart highlighted the “the incredibly experienced and creative team we are building, we are optimistic and excited for the future of this company focusing on bringing fresh and groundbreaking television to viewers, as well driving audiences of all

The 1990s saw Disney dominate popular culture with their Renaissance. As the decade went on, audiences grew sick of the Disney musical formula, which forced the company to take a new and experimental approach going into the new millennium. This Post Renaissance era saw more failures than the previous decade and some of Disney's biggest flops with films like Treasure Planet.

It would appear that Warner Bros. Discovery is changing things up with the release of “Dune: Part Two” later this year. Unlike the previous film in the franchise, there won’t be a flashy Venice Film Festival debut to build buzz for the film. Instead, it appears the studio might have something else up its sleeve. We just don’t know what that is, yet.

Read More: ‘Dune: Part Two’: Dave Bautista Says Austin Butler Is “Terrifying” As Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen In Upcoming Sequel

According to Deadline, “Dune: Part Two” won’t be making its debut at this year’s Venice Film Festival.

Continue reading ‘Dune: Part Two’ Won’t Have A Venice Debut But Could Still Show Up At A Later Festival at The Playlist.

Marvel's newest series Wonder Man has bolstered its cast with the addition of Demetrius Grosse to the show, according to a new report by TVLine. Grosse has been cast in the role of Eric Williams, the brother of Simon Williams - the alter ego of the titular Wonder Man, who will be played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Grosse has most recently been seen on television in AMC's Fear the Walking Dead and Apple TV+'s Swagger, as well as Banshee, Brave and Justified.

Comedy Central announced the return of its hit series Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens with a new teaser shared by Variety that shows Awkwafina is really, really, really trying in Season 3. She stars as Nora, a heightened, fictionalized version of herself surviving life in Queens, New York while trying to make her big break. Based heavily on her own experiences growing up, it follows her as she handles the hardships of young adult life with a little help from her family. She'll continue her struggle to become a larger-than-life figure on Comedy Central on April 26.

Following the runaway success of The Night Agent's first season, Netflix has renewed the Gabriel Basso-led spy thriller series for a second season. This renewal follows the series landing at the top of Netflix's TV charts this week, with an impressive 168,710,000 hours watched. While debuting at #1 on the Netflix charts is impressive, the series actually ranked as the third-highest debut for a Netflix original series—ever. Which undoubtedly factored into the expedited renewal.

Netflix has found it's next animated venture, and this time, it's diving into the underworld. The streamer announced that it is currently working on a new supernatural series, entitled Jentry Chau vs. the Underworld. Along with the general reveal, Netflix also shared the already stacked voice cast line-up, which features Ali Wong in the title role. She will be joined by Lucy Liu, Jimmy O. Yang, Bowen Yang, Lori Tan Chinn, Woosung Kim, and Sheng Wang.

“Elemental” (opening theatrically June 16) achieves a number of milestones for Pixar. It’s the studio’s first rom-com and its first immigrant story about family struggle and sacrifice. And it’s the first Pixar film in which VFX touches every shot.

Set in Element City, where fire, water, air, and earth co-exist despite their fundamental differences, a friendship leads to unexpected sparks when the fiery and intense Ember (Leah Lewis) meets the watery, go-with-the-flow Wade (Mamoudou Athie). Because the character design and world-building of “Elemental” are inextricably linked to the primary elements, at its very core, the film strips animation, storytelling, and identity down to their essentials.

But for director Peter Sohn (“The Good Dinosaur”), it’s a very personal story about paying tribute to his parents, who emigrated from Korea to the Bronx in the early ’70s, opened a grocery store, and raised a family.

“Family heritage has been

Grown-ish is coming to an end with its sixth and final season, Deadline has reported. The fan-favorite long-running series will debut the final season in two parts, the first releasing this summer and the remainder of the season airing in 2024. The decision to end the series is a creative one as per the report. The series launched as a spinoff of ABC’s Black-ish and premiered in 2018. Grown-ish originally chronicled the journey of Yara Shahidi‘s character Zoey as she left home to attend college.

Few events loom larger in the minds of movie teenagers than prom. Dreams are realized, bullies are put in their place, girls are declared “all that.” Real life is rarely as dramatic, thankfully, but that doesn’t mean we should expect studios (and streamers) to stop trying to make the next “Pretty in Pink” or “10 Things I Hate About You” anytime soon. Disney offer a fresh take on teendom’s big night with “Prom Pact,” in which two platonic best friends who are more comfortable on the outside looking in decide to finally step into the fray of high school life.

Mandy Yang (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) first appears in a Ruth Bader Ginsburg T-shirt, obsessively refreshing her Harvard application in the hopes that it’s gone from “pending” to “accepted” while trying to avoid the pep rally where North Seattle High will officially announce its prom theme: the ‘80s.

Some protagonists don't deserve to be redeemed, but that won't stop Barry from trying. HBO has released a new trailer for the final season of their acclaimed dark comedy, starring Bill Hader as the titular character. After years of running away from the consequences of his crimes, Barry was finally caught in the finale of the third season, after Mr. Cousineau (Henry Winkler) tricked the former marine into meeting him while the police were waiting outside his house. The new trailer sees Barry losing his mind as he adapts to his new life behind bars. Audiences also get a look at how the protagonist's actions affect the people who were close to him.

On New Year’s Day, it was reported that Jeremy Renner was in critical condition after a snow plow accident. Eventually, we’d learn that a huge Snowcat ran over Renner, crushing his body and breaking numerous bones. Since then, we’ve seen peeks into his recovery, but nothing major. However, next week, Diane Sawyer airs an interview she had with Renner where he goes through the events of that day and his recovery in great detail.

Continue reading Jeremy Renner Opens Up About Tragic Snow Plow Accident: “I Was Awake Through Every Moment” at The Playlist.

Throughout his celebrated four-decade career, Kevin Costner has at times cultivated a reputation for being difficult to work with. As an actor who eventually transitioned into directing and producing, it's not surprising that he's a man possessing a specific vision and strong opinions. Though it was hardly the first time Costner clashed with filmmaking allies, his creative disagreements reached a particular level of public scrutiny before the release of Sam Raimi's For Love of the Game. After the brass at Universal Pictures requested specific editorial cuts to the film, Costner, in an alleged breach of contractual terms, voiced his disapproval and promptly soured his relationship with the media company.

There are filmmakers whose work is undeniably singular, even if you look at a single frame of the film. Wes Anderson is one of those directors. But another would be French filmmaker, Quentin Dupieux. And in this episode of The Playlist Podcast, Quentin Dupieux joins to talk about his new film, “Smoking Causes Coughing,” which might be his wildest, most Dupieux-iest film yet.

Continue reading Quentin Dupieux Talks ‘Smoking Causes Coughing,’ Creating “Creepy Vibes” & His Upcoming English-Language Return [The Playlist Podcast] at The Playlist.

Comic tragedies are big right now (just look at "Succession" and "The White Lotus"), but perhaps the greatest comedic tragedy since "The Sopranos" is coming to its end on HBO, and the final trailer is here. Bill Hader's "Barry," about a hitman who gets bitten by the acting bug while working a job in Los Angeles, will premiere its final season on Sunday, April 16, 2023, with new episodes each Sunday thereafter. "Barry" is an absolute masterclass in storytelling, packing more punch into its 30-minute episodes than many shows do with a full hour. 

Things were looking pretty bleak for Barry at the end of season 3, in which the hitman's murder of his acting teacher's girlfriend finally came back to haunt him and he was arrested for his crimes. The series has long walked a tonal tightrope between humor and horror, with some of its best episodes whipping between the two

Sony is expanding the scope of the Spider-Verse this summer. Not only do we have "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" due to hit theaters in June, but the studio has also revealed that a brand new, in-universe short titled "The Spider Within" is headed our way as well. As for how you can see the short? At least at first, it's going to be a select few attending a major film festival this summer.

According to Variety, "The Spider Within" is set to premiere at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June. Perhaps not coincidentally, this is right around the time that "Across the Spider-Verse" will be hitting theaters. We have reached out to Sony for further details regarding release plans for the short beyond Annecy but the studio has not yet responded to our request for comment. As for what the short will entail? The synopsis reads as follows:

In the short,