Photo: Nikki DeLoach, Warren Christie

Credit: ©2024 Hallmark Media/Photographer: Paulina Stevens

Nikki DeLoach and Warren Christie star in the new Hallmark movie, Our Holiday Story. Airing as part of the feel-good network’s Countdown to Christmas 2024, the movie tells the story of a happily married couple, as they tell their daughter’s boyfriend how they met and fell in love. Read on to learn more about the upcoming rom-com and its cast.

Our Holiday Story on the Hallmark Channel Photo: Gavin Langelo, Sydney Scotia

Credit: ©2024 Hallmark Media/Photographer: Paulina Stevens

According to TV Insider, Our Holiday Story is about a happily married couple, Dave (Christie) and Nel Ammer (DeLoach), who have a guest over for the holidays – their daughter Joanna’s (Sydney Scotia) new boyfriend, Chris Eiker (Gavin Langelo).

As they get to know him, Dave and Nell share the story of how they first met and fell in love.

Two Winnipeg filmmakers gathered in Toronto last week to discuss their latest works and their relationship to their hometown and its anti-mainstream film scene. Matthew Rankin, whose “Universal Language” now represents Canada in the Best International Feature Film Oscar race, was joined by Canadian auteur Guy Maddin at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival for a dialogue about their filmmaking.

Guy Maddin co-directed the 2024 film “Rumours” with Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson, and the political satire has played festivals far and wide, from Cannes to TIFF. Rankin won the Directors’ Fortnight Audience Award at Cannes for his absurdist triptych comedy that riffs on Wes Anderson while homaging Abbas Kiarostami. Rankin’s Oscilloscope release (out early next year) connects three seemingly unrelated stories about people in Winnipeg whose ordinary lives take a surreal turn.

Both Maddin and Rankin shared in their desire not to be pigeonholed into genre. Though Rankin is only...

A quick perusal of social media shows some fans are still processing the idea that Joker: Folie à Deux, a sequel to Todd Phillips’ billion-dollar-grossing favorite of edgelords everywhere, is going to be a musical. The marketing is being a little coy about it, too, with only snippets of Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck humming a few bars of Burt Bacharach to himself, or Lady Gaga’s Harleen Quinzel playfully quoting Judy Garland’s “Get Happy.” But yes: Joker 2 is expected to be a full-throated, song-in-its-heart, toe-tapper.

That departure from the first film is one of the most curious and appealing things about Phillips and Phoenix returning to the well of a project that seemed fairly insular five years ago. However, we now have confirmation that isn’t the only tip of the hat to Hollywood’s Golden Age, and specifically toward Warner Bros. at that. Indeed, according to a new report in Variety,...

Paramount’s free streaming service Pluto TV has revealed its August highlights. Pluto TV is boldly going where no streamer has gone before, becoming the first service to offer the entire Star Trek film series for free!

Pluto TV has long been home to a galaxy of science fiction entertainment, and now all of the cinematic adventures of the Star Trek Prime Universe (William Shatner and Patrick Stewart) and the Kelvin Universe (Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto) are beaming up to your favorite device. Also joining Pluto TV in August are Alien Nation by Dust and three new channels from Fox.

Pluto TV is the leading free streaming television service, delivering hundreds of live, linear channels and thousands of titles on-demand to a global audience. The Emmy Award-winning service curates a diverse lineup of channels in partnership with hundreds of international media companies.

Pluto TV offers various genres, languages, and categories featuring movies,...

Exclusive: Multi-hyphenate actress and comedian Lisa Ann Walter has signed with Gersh for representation.

Walter, one of the stars of ABC’s Emmy-winning comedy series Abbott Elementary, has earned a Peabody award and shares a SAG award for her role as Melissa Schemmenti on the show which is entering its fourth season. Her other credits include creator and star of ABC’s Life’s Work comedy and a starring role in Breaking News. She also has appeared on shows such as Curb Your Enthusiasm, Las Vegas, Nip/Tuck, Glow, Grey’s Anatomy and 9-1-1. She also created and executive produced Dance Your Ass Off and has won celebrity editions of The Weakest Link and Jeopardy.

Walter’s film work includes The Parent Trap, alongside Lindsay Lohan, Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson; Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds; Bruce Almighty, alongside Jim Carrey; and Shall We Dance, alongside Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopez, Susan Sarandon and Stanley Tucci.

Paramount+ with Showtime has fired up a new series titled The Agency for subscribers.

The Agency is an international espionage thriller that is landing some pretty heavy talent.

Here’s everything we know about the upcoming series so far.

What is The Agency About?

The Agency is a fresh take on the critically acclaimed hit French drama Le Bureau des Légendes (The Bureau internationally).

Le Bureau centers on the daily life and missions of agents within France's principal external security service. It focuses on the "Bureau of Legends," responsible for training and handling deep-cover agents on long-term missions in areas with French interests.

Related: Tulsa King Season 2: Premiere Date and Teaser

Living under false identities for years, these agents' missions are to identify and recruit good intelligence sources.

The Agency follows Martian (Fassbender), a covert CIA agent who has been ordered to abandon his undercover life and return to London Station.

For the last three decades, the multi-hyphenate Lisa Ann Walter, who began her career in stand-up comedy, made her mark as a character actor in films such as Bruce Almighty, Eddie and Shall We Dance? However, for most millennials, Walter is best known for playing Chessy, the beloved nanny in Nancy Meyer’s The Parent Trap. These days, nearly a quarter of a century later, Walter has emerged in the spotlight on ABC’s award-winning mockumentary Abbott Elementary, where she plays the Italian-American spitfire Melissa Schemmenti, a second and third-grade teacher at an underfunded Philadelphia public school. Here, she discusses the joys of playing the elementary school teacher and her own educational upbringing.

Deadline: You’ve returned to doing stand-up recently. How has it been going back on stage versus being behind the camera on Abbott Elementary?

Lisa Ann Walter: I was a stage actress first in musicals and plays.

The cast of Abbott Elementary has been working hard at Willard R. Abbott Elementary, but no one more than second-grade teacher Janine Teagues.

The main cast has remained mostly the same since the comedy's inception.

Quinta Brunson stepped in a different light as we saw her work in her new role as a temporary fellowship in the school district.

This gave Season 3 a little twist, following her trying to adjust to bureaucracy and her co-workers' happenings.

The cast brings mightier humor to our TV screens each new season.

Meet Abbott Elementary Season 4 cast and characters:

Quinta Brunson (Janine Teagues)

Janine Teagues is the main character of Abbott Elementary and a second-grade teacher. She always remains optimistic despite the school's underfunding and lack of essentials.

In season 3, she was offered a temporary fellowship at the school district.

Her mission is to help the lives of her students, and her cheeriness can...

Fred Astaire was an Oscar-nominated song and dance man best remembered for a series of musicals he made alongside many female dancer, but especially Ginger Rogers. Yet his filmography extends well past those titles. Let’s take a look back at 20 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

As a dancer, Astaire was known for his perfectionism, doing multiple takes to get the most precise movements correct. His immaculate steps were matched only by his outfits, which often consisted of top hats and coats.

After making a name for himself on the stage in London and on Broadway, Astaire came to Hollywood. He first appeared with fellow dancer Rogers in “Flying Down to Rio” (1933), where they played second fiddle to Dolores del Rio and Gene Raymond. Their first starring vehicle came just one year later: “The Gay Divorcee” (1934).

Their subsequent films, including “Top Hat” (1935), “Follow the Fleet” (1936), “Swing Time...

Exclusive: Omar Benson Miller (The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey) has been tapped for an undisclosed role in Ryan Coogler’s Warner Bros supernatural thriller, starring Michael B. Jordan.

Pic’s plot remains under wraps. As previously reported, Jack O’Connell, Delroy Lindo, Jayme Lawson, and Wunmi Mosaku will also star. Deadline was first to tell you about Warners’ acquisition of the project, following a heated bidding war.

Coogler is writing and will also produce alongside Zinzi Coogler and Sev Ohanian. The film’s executive producers are two-time Oscar-winning composer Ludwig Göransson, Rebecca Cho, and Will Greenfield. Shooting begins this month, with the film to roll out in theaters on March 7, 2025.

Bringing Jordan and Coogler back together following their collaboration on the Creed and Black Panther franchises and the acclaimed Sundance drama Fruitvale Station, the film is the second from the collaborators that Warner Bros Film Group co-chairs and CEOs Mike De Luca...

Tl;Dr:

John Lennon’s “Instant Karma!” had an intro reminiscent of an earlier song.The Beatles covered the earlier song.Sean Ono Lennon discussed his reaction to “Instant Karma!” and his father’s music in general. John Lennon | Icon and Image / Contributor

John Lennon‘s “Instant Karma!” is one of his most popular solo songs. During an interview, he said part of it sounded like an earlier track. Subsequently, John’s son, Sean Ono Lennon, discussed what he feels when he hears “Instant Karma!”

John Lennon said The Beatles did a terrible job covering a song at the Cavern Club before they were famous

The book Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon features an interview from 1974. In the interview, John discusses some records he enjoyed. “Another American record, that nobody I know over here seems to have ever heard of,” he said. “And it’s called ‘Some Other Guy,...

Maybe I Do Image: Vertical Entertainment Dry wit and sexy repartee may, lamentably, be considered “old school” in cinema today, particularly in that wittiest and sexiest of genres, the romantic comedy. But Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon, who have chemistry to spare both on screen in Michael Jacobs’ rom-com Maybe I Do...

A surprising turn of events occurred in the final moments of the Harvey Weinstein trial when prosecutors called a Weinstein accuser back for further testimony. Ashley Matthau, who testified earlier in the trial accusing Weinstein of masturbating on her during production of the 2004 film “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights,” returned to the stand Wednesday morning as a rebuttal witness for the prosecution, moments after the defense rested their case.

Matthau stood in stark contrast to a defense witness who testified earlier this week, JoAnn Jansen, the choreographer from “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights.” Jansen told the jury that she has no idea who Matthau is and was firm in her testimony this past Monday that Matthau was not a principal dancer on the film. On the stand today, Matthau looked through copies of residual checks for her work on the musical film as principal dancer, and shuffled through 22 pages of call sheets...

Harvey Weinstein’s defense called on a choreographer from the 2004 film “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights” to answer questions about a dancer from the movie, who is a witness testifying in the L.A. trial. The dancer has alleged that she was sexually assaulted by Weinstein during production on the musical film, which his company Miramax produced.

Choreographer JoAnn Jansen was subpoenaed by Weinstein’s defense team to take the stand on Monday afternoon. She was the main choreographer on the 2004 film, which was a reimagining of the original hit “Dirty Dancing,” and has worked on a total of four films for Weinstein.

Jansen said she has no recollection of ever meeting Ashley Matthau, who is an uncharged witness in the trial. Matthau had booked a small role as a dancer on the “Dirty Dancing” sequel. During her testimony, she alleged she was assaulted in 2003 when Weinstein masturbated on her in...

One of my favorite composers who has made a musical splash on the film score scene is Pinar Toprak. Being a collector of scores, whether it be TV of film, I’m a huge fan of hers and she has quickly become an active and reinvigorating composer in Hollywood. Toprak wrote the fantastic scores for DC’s Stargirl on The CW, and Sy-fy’s Superman prequel series Krypton.

Today, Variety reported: “on Sunday she (Toprak) will be onstage at the Dolby conducting the Oscar orchestra for Billie Eilish’s performance of “No Time to Die.” Details about Sunday are otherwise under wraps. It’s said to be a new arrangement of the Oscar-nominated James Bond theme, and Eilish’s co-writer and sibling Finneas is expected to be onstage too. Toprak couldn’t comment.“

Review: http://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2022/03/the-lost-city-2022-review/

LA-La Land Records and Paramount Music has released Toprak’s...

Exclusive: Two-time BAFTA nominee Peter Chelsom is making his second feature, the revenge thriller The Beauty of Sharks with Indiana Production in Italy. The news comes as Chelsom’s Italian thriller Security drops on Netflix today.

Written by Rob Green with rewrites by Chelsom and Tinker Linsday, the pic, set in 1958, follows Mrs. Joy Hamilton, a recently widowed American socialite on the brink of ending her life when she sees the chance to avenge a famous millionairess, whose son she raised as her own. Believing the son to be dead, Mrs. Hamilton recruits a handsome gigolo to be the imposter in a dangerous confidence trick. The Beauty of Sharks will shoot in Amalfi in January and casting is underway. Colin Vaines and Lee Brazier will produce.

Chelsom tells Deadline, “It’s very much a ‘modern period film’ – a story that addresses issues of privilege, prejudice and fluidity which, by virtue...

This Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom analysis contains spoilers. You can find our spoiler-free review here.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom tells the story of a group of 1920s musicians, composites of session players at the time, waiting for “the Mother of the Blues” to bring her big voice to the big room at Hot Rhythm Recordings. “Ma” Rainey, positively channeled by Viola Davis in the film, owned the copyrights of her songs, some of which became blues standards. Her trumpet player, Levee, masterfully captured by Chadwick Boseman in his cinematic swan song, doesn’t catch that break. The young horn player spends a lot of his time finishing a song for the session producer Sturdyvant (Jonny Coyne). He’s promised a recording using his arrangement.

The delivery of that promise first comes as a devaluation. The producer pounces on Levee when he’s down. He’d just been fired...

Disclosure have shared their quirky new video for “Watch Your Step,” the Kelis-featuring single from the brotherly dance duo’s latest LP Energy.

Keeping true to its title, the visual — directed by Kid Studio, who previously helmed Disclosure’s similarly oddball “Energy” and “Birthday” videos — centers around an extremely large-footed kid and his attempts to woo an older teenager at a community hall’s dance.

In the video’s final moments, it’s revealed that the boy is somehow the son of Rufio — yes, Rufio from Hook — as evidenced by actor Dante Basco,...

On Disclosure’s breakthrough 2013 debut Settle, the U.K. duo of Howard and Guy Lawrence employed a sample of motivational speaker Eric Thomas, flipping his rhythmic speech into irresistible dance music on “When a Fire Starts to Burn.” Thomas makes a welcome return on Disclosure’s third album Energy, his words used to bring a jolt of positivity to the title track. “If you are alive, I know you ain’t reached your best/Right now, you should feel invincible, powerful, strong,” he says, the momentum building around him in a tumble of kick drums,...

Exclusive: We have learned that producer Meryl Poster has optioned the rights to the Broadway Books novel Time of My Life by Allison Winn Scotch under her new deal at Columbia Pictures which focuses on female-driven projects.

Time of My Life follows a discontented stay-at-home mom who wakes up seven years prior and gets a second chance to relive the choices she made and tries to discover if changing her past can changer her future.

More from DeadlineSony Taps 'Sorry for Your Loss' Creator Kit Steinkellner To Pen Adaptation of Japanese Book 'If Cats Disappeared From The World'; Masi Oka, Will Gluck Producing'Spider-Man: Far From Home' Reps Sony's Most Profitable Movie Of 2019: No. 8 In Deadline's Most Valuable Blockbuster Tournament'Bloodshot' Filmmaker David S.F. Wilson Inks With CAA

Scotch is the New York Times bestselling author of eight novels including the upcoming Cleo McDougal Regrets Nothing out on Aug.

In its 2020 edition, Queer East Film Festival too offers its program online. The festival launched a charitable initiative to raise money to support independent cinemas. Welcome to the Queer East: HomeSexual Edition that features five programmes, with 17 feature and short films from 9 countries. Their stories celebrate inspiring queer activism and storytelling from East and Southeast Asia

“Shall We Dance” is part of Shorts 1: She/Her at Queer East HomeSexual Edition on Demand 18 April – 17 May

“Shall We Dance” sets a lazy sunny day mood. We enter a sunlit apartment, photographed in warm colours. The overall high exposition and soft focus only accent the ambient. The idyll of the moment is broken by the arrival of the second woman. It doesn’t take long for a quarrel to start. After that, there is only one way this story can go.

“Shall We Dance” only shows a fragment of a story, just the moment.

A version of this article originally appeared on EW.com.

Thanksgiving has arrived and with it comes bingeing of all kinds — but mainly food, shopping and TV. We’ve rounded up all the movie and TV show marathons airing over the long holiday weekend so you can watch your favorite while digesting on the couch.

There’s something for everyone to enjoy, whether you’re a Parks and Recreation fan and just want to spend time with your favorite Pawnee residents or a horror fan looking for a scare-fest like those on IFC and Syfy. Perhaps you’d prefer to...

Fred Astaire ca. 1935. Fred Astaire movies: Dancing in the dark, on the ceiling on TCM Aug. 5, '15, is Fred Astaire Day on Turner Classic Movies, as TCM continues with its “Summer Under the Stars” series. Just don't expect any rare Astaire movies, as the actor-singer-dancer's star vehicles – mostly Rko or MGM productions – have been TCM staples since the early days of the cable channel in the mid-'90s. True, Fred Astaire was also featured in smaller, lesser-known fare like Byron Chudnow's The Amazing Dobermans (1976) and Yves Boisset's The Purple Taxi / Un taxi mauve (1977), but neither one can be found on the TCM schedule. (See TCM's Fred Astaire movie schedule further below.) Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals Some fans never tire of watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing together. With these particular fans in mind, TCM is showing – for the nth time – nine Astaire-Rogers musicals of the '30s,...

There's nothing like a good dance flick to bring people together. Catchy tunes, sweet moves, and the inevitable romance that follows have made for entertaining and touching stories since the earliest days of cinema. Whether you’re a professional dancer or the owner of two left feet, here are 20 fun and inspiring dance films to get you moving this summer! “Shall We Dance”This 1937 dance love story tells the tale of ballet dancer Peter P. Peters (Fred Astaire) and his passionate pursuit of tap dancer Linda Keene (Ginger Rogers). With a score by George Gershwin and plentiful dance numbers in numerous styles, it’s a can’t-miss classic for actors and dancers alike. “The Red Shoes”Loosely based on the Hans Christian Andersen story of the same name, this 1948 classic follows a talented ballerina as she chooses between the love of her composer husband and the artistic power of a jealous director.

To celebrate the return of the notorious, extra terrestrial busting black suits to the big screen in the eagerly anticipated Men in Black 3, LOVEFiLM asked over 3000 people to cast their vote for the sharpest suits in cinema. Daniel Craig’s sartorial choice as James Bond topped the style list with an impressive 30% of the vote, putting him streets ahead of Will Smith’s infamous black outfit from the Men in Black franchise, which made its way into second place with 20%. Taking third place in the style stakes (with a slightly less conventional look) is Heath Ledger as The Joker in The Dark Knight, whose menacing purple and green outfit snatched 17% of the vote.

Another colourful ensemble, Johnny Depp’s delectable Willy Wonka get up from Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, gained 8% of the vote, (glass) elevating him into an impressive fourth place in the chart. In a more garish image choice,...

Deborah Kerr, Burt Lancaster, From Here to Eternity. With Deborah Kerr, it’s not the bare shoulders that matter. It’s the eyes. Deborah Kerr, who died at the age of 86 on Oct. 16, 2007, has usually been labeled the cinematic embodiment of the English Rose: ladylike from coiffure to pedicure, perfectly enunciated English, a distinctive coolness, poise and class. I won’t argue with that description (except to point out that this English Rose was born in Scotland), but all the same I wonder if any of those labelers have ever watched Deborah Kerr on screen other than the "Shall We Dance?" sequence in The King and I. Then there are those who have seen two Deborah Kerr scenes: "Shall We Dance?" and the kissing-on-the-beach bit in From Here to Eternity. Shocking! Who would have guessed that the cool, red-headed British lady could be so fiery? Well, anyone who has paid...

From Fred and Ginger to Jennifer and Ashton, romantic comedies used to be one of the safest bets in Hollywood. But it seems that rom is just not into com any more

Is it the end for the romcom? You can imagine the celebrity mag headlines: "Romcom's relationship on the rocks?" "Com: I'm just not that into Rom" "Rom: Com doesn't make me laugh any more."

After all, who says romance and comedy go together like a horse and carriage? It seems to be a chiselled Hollywood commandment that the two shall be forever conjoined in cinematic matrimony, but perhaps it's time they went their separate ways. Sure, they got off to a great start: in those early years it was all fun and games and sparkling repartee, but recently they haven't quite looked the happy couple; the spark just hasn't been there.

They've been stuck in the same repetitive formula: boy meets girl,...

Jazz and ballet collide in the classic Fred and Ginger romance.

In recent years, the title of this film has become overshadowed by two modern movies of the same name: a superb Japanese movie and its American remake, respectively entitled Shall We Dansu? and Shall We Dance. Yet this 1937 classic is worth revisiting not only for its famous Gershwin numbers, but as the last of a series of classic-format films between Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Deeply flawed, yet the tremendous effort poured...

A while back, the Weinstein Brothers -- who used to own Miramax -- made a bid to repurchase it from Disney, but ultimately lost out in that bid. However, Miramax has now brought in the Brothers Weinstein into a long-term partnership developed so that the two companies can produce sequels to a few movies for which the Weinsteins were originally responsible. A slate of potential sequels was released that includes Rounders, Clerks III, Bad Santa, Copland, Shall We Dance, The Amityville Horror, From Dusk til Dawn and Swingers. Most shocking: Shakespeare in Love.

But before you get your drawers in a bunch (and I think we've probably moved past the point of being aghast at sequels or reboots to any movie), keep in mind that this is all very preliminary. Check your outrage. There are some very creative people in Hollywood (and by creative, I mean "spiritually bankrupt"), but I can't imagine many,...

She was one of the first Hollywood child stars, often cast as a 'Little Miss Fixit' orphan

There have been child stars in movies since Hollywood was in its infancy, and Baby Marie Osborne, who has died aged 99, was among the very first. She appeared in 29 films (including shorts and features) in five years, from the age of three. But by the age of eight, she was considered over the hill and, like many child stars since, retired from the movies before puberty.

Appearing only in silent films, Osborne satisfied those who believed that children should be seen and not heard, although some of the intertitles indicated that she had a lisp. Only a few of her films still exist, but one of the survivors, Little Mary Sunshine (1916), which is available on DVD, gives a good idea of her precocious talents.

This extremely popular sentimental comedy starred Osborne as the...

Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Swing Time (top); Hermes Pan, Fred Astaire, George Stevens on the set of Swing Time (bottom) The George Stevens-directed Ginger Rogers-Fred Astaire musical Swing Time will be presented as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ "George Stevens Lecture on Directing" series on Tuesday, October 26, at 7:30 p.m. at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. Swing Time will be introduced by director, producer, actor and comedian David Steinberg, who, as per the Academy's press release, considers this 1936 Rko musical his favorite movie. Many, in fact, consider Swing Time the very best Astaire-Rogers musical. Personally, I was a little disappointed when I saw it a few years ago; I was also surprised to realize that Shall We Dance?, released the following year, was basically a carbon copy imitation. But my disappointment notwithstanding, the stylish Swing Time has a number...