Sean Penn, David Cronenberg and late great Moroccan actor Naïma Elmcherqui are set to be celebrated with career tributes by the Marrakech International Film Festival.

Elmcherqui, who was one of Morocco’s best-loved personalities, died in Casablanca on Oct. 5. After becoming a household name during the 1960s and 70s working with Moroccan theatre director and dramatist Tayeb Seddiki she soared on the big-screen in movies such as Souheil Ben Barka’s “Blood Wedding” (1977), which was Morocco’s first submission for the international Oscar; Mohamed Abderrahman Tazi’s female empowerment drama “Badis” (1989); and, more recently Mohamed Mouftakir’s “The Fall of Apple Trees,” her final film role, for which Elmcherqui won the best actress prize at Sweden’s Malmö Arab Film Festival.

Elmcherqui – who was a member of the board of the foundation that oversees the Marrakech fest – had also appeared in a slew of soaps and Moroccan TV movies that boosted boosted her popularity.

Anna Kendrick is popularly known among fans for her roles in the Pitch Perfect and The Twilight Saga film series. Her performance as Jessica Stanley in the latter elevated her career significantly. Although the supernatural film series, based on Stephenie Meyer’s books, catapulted the success of the entire cast, Kendrick feels that she got the best deal of all.

Anna Kendrick as Jessica Stanley | Credits: Summit Entertainment

Following the release of 2008’s Twilight, Edward Cullen and Bella Swan became household names. The success ensured multiple sequels based on the remaining three novels. Surprisingly, the widespread stardom also harmed Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart as they almost lost their careers after The Twilight Saga.

However, Anna Kendrick claimed that her side role as Jessica Stanley allowed her to have a unique experience and not face any negative impact of stardom.

Anna Kendrick had a better time with The Twilight Saga...

TheWrap can exclusively reveal that Emily Hampshire is joining “Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice,” the high-concept action movie from writer/director BenDavid Grabinski.

She will star alongside the already-announced Vince Vaughn, James Marsden, Eiza González, Jimmy Tatro and Keith David.

The movie is a buddy action-comedy set in the criminal underworld; Hampshire will play a crooked cop.

The actress is perhaps best known from her work on “Schitt’s Creek,” the critically acclaimed comedy that ran for 80 episodes between 2015 and 2020. Hampshire has also appeared in David Cronenberg’s “Cosmopolis” and, earlier this year, “Humane” for David’s daughter Caitlin Cronenberg. She also starred in the “12 Monkeys” television series and the British supernatural series “The Rig” for Prime Video.

Principal photography on “Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice” started in Winnipeg earlier this month. The movie is produced by Andrew Lazar for 20th Century Studios, with Larry Fong serving as cinematographer.

You haven’t lived until you’ve seen Nicole Kidman squat-piss on Zac Efron’s jellyfish sting, or eye-fuck John Cusack from across the room of a no-contact death row prison visit, or Efron dancing to Linda Clifford’s “I Just Wanna Wanna” in clinging tighty-whities in the rain. All of this and more happens in Lee Daniels’ sweaty, swampy Southern Gothic “The Paperboy,” the writer/director’s 2012 follow-up to his Oscar-winning sensation “Precious.” It’s a movie, as Daniels told IndieWire, that “doesn’t get any love.”

Set in 1969, this delirious entertainment follows Matthew McConaughey as a Florida reporter covering inmate Hillary Van Wetter (Cusack), who has been convicted of killing a racist cop. McConaughey hires his brother Jack (Efron) to probe Hillary’s possible innocence. Efron is seduced by the vamping, sex-mad blonde Charlotte Bless (Kidman), a southern-friend Alabama belle in love with Hillary from afar. Violence, madness,...

After delivering the biggest 2022 horror film, Smile, filmmaker Parker Finn is prepared to bring a remake of one of the most controversial horror films from the 1980s, Possession. Reportedly, Finn will collaborate with The Batman fame Robert Pattinson for the upcoming remake of the 1981 classic.

A still from Possession | Oliane Productions

Possession, starring Sam Neill and Isabelle Adjani, was a bizarre horror drama that featured a failing marriage between an international spy and his wife. But things take a wild turn as we discover that the story has everything strange – from doppelgangers to an awful Lovecraftian tentacled creature.

While Robert Pattinson is confirmed to produce the film, he is also likely to lead. His association with the film also assures the fans that the actor is trying hard to leave his past image.

Robert Pattinson may play one of the strangest roles in his career

Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen...

The ShroudsImage: Cinetic Media

I’ve experienced a rare thing with regards to David Cronenberg’s latest film, The Shrouds, particularly during festival time. As it’s a Canadian film, one of several that premiered this year in Cannes, I got to screen it a few days before flying to France.

David Cronenberg always makes personal cinema, whether telepodding Jeff Goldblum into a human-sized pest in “The Fly” or asking James Spader to fuck a gaping flesh wound in “Crash.” The Canadian filmmaker will never tell you what makes his body horror classics so close to home, but he doesn’t feel it should matter to viewers anyway.

“For an average audience, they shouldn’t have to know that,” Cronenberg, behind oversized Saint Laurent sunglasses, told IndieWire at Cannes on a windy day atop the Jw Marriott. “They shouldn’t have to know that it has any basis in my reality at all. The movie has to stand on its own, and you can’t expect the audience to give you credit because it’s really happened to you.”

But his latest film “The Shrouds,” his seventh to compete for the Palme d’Or at Cannes and a co-production of fashion house Saint Laurent,...

In his late career resurgence with Crimes of the Future having been showcased in the comp in 2022, David Cronenberg makes his entrance with The Shrouds (aka Les Linceuls) – a Canada-France co-production. Having been here before for Crash (1996), Spider (2002), A History of Violence (2005), Cosmopolis (2012) and Maps to the Stars (2014), the filmmaker reunites with Vincent Cassel and makes it a first with Diane Kruger and Guy Pearce.

Gist: Karsh (Cassel) is a prominent businessman. Inconsolable since the death of his wife, he invents GraveTech, revolutionary and controversial technology that enables the living to monitor their dear departed in their shrouds.…...

David Cronenberg’s “The Shrouds,” the horror auteur’s latest film about a widow who invents technology to see inside his late wife’s grave, received a 3.5-minute standing ovation at its Cannes premiere on Monday night.

The crowd showed their respect for the Cannes legend with applause after the credits rolled, but it was lackluster as audience members digested the film, which is a departure from Cronenberg’s usual out-of-the-box body horror. Instead, “The Shrouds” is a thoughtful exploration of grief and technology, and though there are several gross-out moments, the film relies on emotion more than anything.

“This is the first time I’ve seen the movie with an audience, and it’s completely different,” Cronenberg said after the clapping died down. “I’m very happy that you are all here.”

Described as an arthouse horror film, “The Shrouds” stars Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, Guy Pearce and Sandrine Holt.

“How dark do you want to go?” The man asking that is named Karsh (Vincent Cassel), and he’s seated in a minimalist art-chic restaurant having lunch with a blind date. The one who’s really asking the question, though, is David Cronenberg, writer-director of “The Shrouds.” He’s been asking that question — to audiences — for his entire career, and to him the answer has always been the same: The darker the better.

Yet Cronenberg has a special brand of dark. In “The Shrouds,” Karsh is a businessman who produces industrial videos, with a sleek Toronto apartment that looks out at the Cn Tower, but he’s also a co-owner of the restaurant they’re sitting in, and the purveyor of what’s in the garden next to it: a cemetery where the gravestones are technological devices, and the corpses are draped in futuristic shrouds that allow you to peer...

A new animated TV series is in the works inspired by a video game featured in “Boy Kills World,” the upcoming martial arts action film starring Bill Skarsgård as a deaf boy trained to enact vengeance on those who murdered his family.

“Super Dragon Punch Force 3,” the real-life action-packed fighter video game that appears in the film (and will launch day-and-date with the U.S. and global release of “Boy Kills World” on April 26), has had its own animated series greenlit. Now in development, the show, which is set to dive into the universe of the game, will follow a highly-skilled yet dysfunctional team of misfits as they fight to defend their world from sentient robots, an ancient network of cultists and other intergalactic threats.

Mario Carvalhal, whose most recent credits include the Apple TV+ and Skydance’s animated series “The Search for Wondla” and the horror thriller “Browse” starring Lukas Haas,...

Acclaimed auteurs Francis Ford Coppola, Yorgos Lanthimos, Paolo Sorrentino and Andrea Arnold are among the filmmakers set to compete for the coveted Palme d’Or at the 77th Cannes Film Festival.

A total of 19 features were revealed today (April 11) that will play in Competition at the festival, set to run May 14-25.

Rarely a festival to veer far from familiar names, the Competition line-up is dominated by directors who have been selected multiple times for Cannes.

They include US filmmaker Coppola with sci-fi epic Megalopolis, which stars Adam Driver and is set in a future version of New York City following a disaster.

Actor Robert Pattinson gained worldwide recognition for starring as Edward Cullen in The Twilight Saga film series from 2008 to 2012. He later went on to star in independent movies from auteur directors, including Cosmopolis, The Lost City of Z, Good Time, The Lighthouse, and more. Pattinson returned to mainstream cinema with Christopher Nolan’s Tenet in 2020, followed by starring as Bruce Wayne, a.k.a. Batman, in Matt Reeves’ The Batman in 2022.

Robert Pattinson’s highly anticipated movie Mickey 17 is a science fiction movie written, directed, and co-produced by South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho. Edward Ashton’s 2022 novel Mickey 7 bases the movie and stars Steven Yeun, Mark Ruffalo, Naomi Ackie, and Toni Collette, in addition to Pattinson leading the cast. The movie’s trailer recently premiered at CinemaCon, and the first reaction to the trailer has been chilling.

Robert Pattinson stars as Mickey 17 & 18 in Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17

Bong...

When your surname’s a noun, adjective, and verb it behooves one to keep up the family legacy. As Brandon Cronenberg continued his feature-filmmaking career with last year’s Infinity Pool, Caitlin Cronenberg is staking a similar path with the dystopian satire Humane. Ahead of its April 26 theatrical release and Shudder debut on July 26, there is a trailer.

Starring Jay Baruchel (of the patriarch’s Cosmopolis), Emily Hampshire, and Peter Gallagher, Humane “takes place over the course of a single day, set months after a global ecological collapse has forced world leaders to take extreme measures to reduce the earth’s population, per the official synopsis. In a wealthy enclave, a recently retired newsman has invited his grown children to dinner to announce his intentions to enlist in the nation’s new euthanasia program. But when the father’s plan goes horribly awry, tensions flare and chaos erupts among his children.

Acclaimed British actor, writer and director Samantha Morton who was awarded a Fellowship at the Ee BAFTA Awards on Sunday has called for more investment in British cinema.

The award is the highest recognition given by BAFTA to an individual for their exceptional contribution to the film, games or television industry.

Addressing a press conference after accepting her award, Morton said: “We need more investment in British cinema. I’ve been saying this for years because we can’t just be a service industry for the wonderful Americans. They are amazing and thank God they come here and make movies and put us in as well, thank you. Like in France, we need our own quotas and we need to be making those investments.” Inward investment in the U.K. film and high-end TV industry was $4.22 billion in 2023, with the bulk of it coming from the U.S.

The U.K....

British actor, writer, and director Samantha Morton will be awarded the BAFTA Fellowship at next week’s Ee BAFTA Film Awards.

Born in Nottingham in 1977, Morton garnered international attention in 1997 with her performance in Carine Adler’s Under the Skin, earning her a BIFA nomination and the Boston Film Critics Award for Best Actress. She has been nominated for an Academy Award first for Best Supporting Actress for Woody Allen’s Sweet and Lowdown (1999), and later for Best Actress for Jim Sheridan’s In America (2003).

Other notable film credits include work with directors such as Lynne Ramsay on Morvern Callar (2002), for which she won Best Performance, Toronto Film Critics Award and a BIFA for Best Actress; Steven Spielberg on Minority Report (2002); Michael Winterbottom on Code 46 (2003); Shekhar Kapur on The Golden Age (2007); Harmony Korine on Mister Lonely (2007); Anton Corbijn on Control, (2007), earning her a Best Supporting Actress BAFTA Film Award nomination; Charlie Kaufman Synecdoche,...

Acclaimed British actor, writer and director Samantha Morton will be awarded a Fellowship at the upcoming Ee BAFTA Film Awards.

The award is the highest recognition given by BAFTA to an individual for their exceptional contribution to the film, games or television industry.

After earning plaudits in theater and television, Morton’s breakthrough film role was Carine Adler’s “Under the Skin (1997) that earned her a BIFA nomination and the Boston Film Critics Award for best actress. She has been Oscar nominated twice – for best supporting actress for Woody Allen’s “Sweet and Lowdown” (1999), and for best actress for Jim Sheridan’s “In America” (2003).

For her portrayal of child-murderer Myra Hindley in “Longford” (2006) Morton scored best actress nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and BAFTA Television Award, and won a Golden Globe. In 2009, she made her directorial debut with television film “The Unloved,” a semi-autobiographical film based in the British children’s care system,...

Actor, writer and director Samantha Morton will receive the Bafta Fellowship at next week’s Bafta Film Awards, on Sunday, February 18.

The British performer and filmmaker will receive the award during the ceremony as part of a special commemoration of her work to date.

Morton, who hails from Nottingham, broke through with her role in Carine Adler’s 1997 Under The Skin, for which she received a Bifa nomination.

Her subsequent credits include Lynne Ramsay’s Morvern Callar, for which she won the Bifa for best actress; Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report; Anton Corbijn’s Control, for which she was nominated...

Adam Driver cursed out an audience member who criticized the crash scenes in “Ferrari” after a recent screening of the film at Poland’s Camerimage Film Festival.

“What do you think about the crash scenes? They looked pretty harsh, drastic and, I must say, cheesy for me,” the audience member said. “What do you think?”

“F–k you, I don’t know. Next question,” Driver said. A video of the exchange that was posted to X has already been liked over 7.7 thousand times.

When someone in the audience says the crash scenes in Ferrari “looked pretty harsh, drastic and I must say cheesy for me” and asked Adam what he thought pic.twitter.com/mXaF1LlTuf

— Adam Driver Central (@adamdrivercentl) November 12, 2023

Directed by Michael Mann and written by Troy Kennedy Martin, “Ferrari” is based on Brock Yates 1991 biography “Enzo Ferrari: The Man, the Cars, the Races, the Machine.” Driver stars...

Maple Syrup Massacre is an editorial series where Joe Lipsett dissects the themes, conventions and contributions of new and classic Canadian horror films. Spoilers follow…

Three films into his feature film career, Brandon Cronenberg has established himself as an innovative and confronting auteur in his own right. When he debuted his 2012 feature debut Antiviral, however, the quality of the film was a secondary topic; first and foremost he was compared to his famous father, David Cronenberg.

There’s a obvious level of cynicism involved whenever a celebrity’s child enters the same field (let’s all agree to bury the term “nepo baby” and move on with our lives). But in the case of Cronenberg junior, there’s an interesting argument to be made about how his father’s work influenced Brandon’s creative approach, and where he’s established himself in his own right.

For a time, David Cronenberg...

Just when you thought you’d heard every “Harvey Weinstein is a monster” story, something new emerges.

The latest tale comes courtesy of Samantha Morton, who appeared on the Spotify’s “The Louis Theroux Podcast” and recounted how the one-time megaproducer once threatened that she “will not work again” after she declined starring in one of his movies — and in one instance, he made good on that promise.

Morton recalled on the podcast interview, published Monday, how she declined to star in a 2000 romantic comedy “About Adam,” which eventually starred Kate Hudson, Stuart Townsend and Frances O’Connor. Weinstein then threatened to ruin her life.

“I said, ‘I don’t like it.’ I think the film is really misogynistic, and I don’t want to be part of it,'” shes said. “The casting director came back with, ‘You don’t say no to Harvey.'” To which she said, “Well it’s not to him.

This article contains spoilers for various sci-fi movies

“In the end? Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends.” If you’re a geek reading Den of Geek, you probably recognize those words as the final ones between Dr. Manhattan and Adrian Veidt in Alan Moore and David Gibbons’s Watchmen. Manhattan’s statement comes as a warning to Veidt, who tried to save humanity from itself by manufacturing an alien invasion at the cost of nearly half of the world’s population. Viedt, of course, wants to know if it’s over, if he did truly save the world. But for Manhattan, who exists at all points on his timeline at once, the answer isn’t so simple. Nothing ends because nothing begins. It all simply is, at least from his perspective.

Get it? Yeah, me neither. But that’s part of the deal with sci-fi stories like Watchmen. Branching timelines,...

Exclusive: Kevin Durand (Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes) is the newest addition to the cast of the as-yet-untitled monster thriller that Radio Silence’s Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett are directing for Universal.

The actor joins an ensemble which also includes Melissa Barrera, Alisha Weir and Dan Stevens, as previously announced.

In the vein of Universal’s recent films like The Invisible Man and Renfield, the Radio Silence thriller will provide a unique take on legendary monster lore, representing a fresh, new direction for how to celebrate these classic characters. Universal monster films are rooted in the horror genre, with no restrictions on budget, rating or genre — and they are not part of a shared interconnected universe, which allows each to stand on its own. This new direction is filmmaker-driven, inviting innovative filmmakers with original, bold ideas for these characters to develop the stories and pitch them.

Stephen Sheilds wrote the script,...

During the development of "The Batman," there were only two real contenders to be the Dark Knight: Robert Pattinson and Nicholas Hoult. Director Matt Reeves had been impressed by their recent performances and knew he wanted one of them to be his leading man. Both actors met with Reeves and had screen tests, and as you probably know by now, Pattinson got the part.

During the press tour for Hoult's new movie "Renfield," GQ España asked him whether he regrets missing out on Batman. "I'm sure if you ask most people, they'll tell you they'd want to portray that role," Hoult replied. However, beyond that, he wasn't bitter about it at all. He explained:

"When they tell you for the first time that it's not you, it's painful, but then you have to accept it as normality. I think that's probably a strength of mine as an actor as well.

David Cronenberg knows what he likes. He's made a career out of sticking doggedly to his own twisted visions of humanity and churning out some of the most provocative films of the past few decades. But while they're sometimes dismissed as gratuitous body horror fests, Cronenberg's films have often interrogated complex societal issues. That was the case with his 2012 effort "Cosmopolis," which provided an unsettling insight into the cold detachment of society's elite, played out almost entirely inside a limo by Robert Pattinson. And while Pattinson, fresh off his "Twilight Saga" stardom, was understandably nervous and terrified going into "Cosmopolis," he seems to have left a lasting impression on Cronenberg.

A decade later, Pattinson would end up playing the lead role in Matt Reeves's superhero film "The Batman," stepping into what is the "Cosmopolis" director's arguably least favorite genre. In the past, Cronenberg has had some pretty harsh words for superhero films.

Exclusive: Fresh off starring in Toronto Film Festival drama North Of Normal, Sarah Gadon is set to make her directorial debut on feature Lullabies For Little Criminals, based on Heather O’Neill’s 2007 novel which won the Canada Reads competition.

Alias Grace and True Detective star Gadon will adapt the screenplay and also produce alongside Brightlight Pictures’ (Firefly Lane) Shawn Williamson and Emily Alden. Production is slated to take place in Montreal.

The movie will follow thirteen year-old Baby who vacillates between childhood comforts and adult temptation. Her father, Jules, takes better care of his drug habit than he does of his daughter, however when her blossoming beauty captures the attention of a charismatic and dangerous local it creates a volatile situation which threatens to crush Baby’s spirit.

Gadon’s latest feature is Carly Stone drama North of Normal which launched on Sunday at TIFF. The Canadian actress stars with Robert Carlyle,...

You might think it would be strange to see a mega-budget Noah Baumbach movie complete with CGI explosions, a Spielbergian kind of holy terror, and even one sadistically drawn-out jump-scare dream sequence, but the oddest thing about “White Noise” is its persistent sense of déjà vu. Not just the déjà vu of watching such a faithful adaptation of any Great American Novel — although there’s plenty of that — but also the déjà vu that’s supposedly caused by exposure to the Airborne Toxic Event at the center of Don DeLillo’s 1985 book, a prescient and enduringly tender Polaroid of our late capitalist society in which life has become indistinguishable from its own imitation, and death has become a thing that only happens to other people.

Fittingly, if not always to its credit, Baumbach’s film is split between seeming brand-new and all too familiar at the same time; , his “White...

Certain literary works feel destined for adaptation; with Don DeLillo’s postmodern classic White Noise, published in 1985, it was surely inevitable. Inevitable in the sense of it being a likely American cultural heritage project, brought into cinema after its reputation solidified instead of the Reagan years in which it takes place and was released. And in this particular case we’re reminded that claims it (and other postmodern novels) were unadaptable are rather synonymous with the potential financial risk of mounting them.

Even in light of their well-publicized financial troubles, Netflix is a platform where these heretofore unrealizable projects can find their home and wide global audience, insulated from having to perform well in theaters. Adapted from the novel and directed by urbane New Yorker Noah Baumbach, this is a half-successful swing for modish relevance and connoisseurship of the contemporary social zeitgeist, only truly uniting the text’s concerns with...

The upcoming Walking Dead spin-off Tales of the Walking Dead is an anthology series, which means that each of the first season’s six episodes will center on different characters that may or may not make appearances in other episodes throughout the season. Because each episode is primarily a self-contained story, actors who may not have the time to commit to a full season arc are able to join this universe. This means that Tales of the Walking Dead has a stacked cast with many familiar faces – some are newcomers to the franchise and others are Walking Dead alums.

Olivia Munn as Evie

Olivia Munn will play Evie in the first episode of the season, who partners with a reclusive doomsday prepper to find their lost loved ones. Munn has an extensive filmography of both genre and comedy work, and worked as a correspondent for The Daily Show from 2010 to...

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Canadian master of horror David Cronenberg will receive the Donostia Award, a lifetime achievement honor, at this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival.

Cronenberg will receive the award at a gala on September 21 in San Sebastian’s Victoria Eugenia Theatre, followed by the screening of his latest movie, Crimes of the Future.

The dystopian drama, which stars Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux and Kristen Stewart, premiered in competition in Cannes last month, where it was an audience favorite. Critics hailed it as a return to form for Cronenberg, who is considered a pioneer of body horror and auteur sci-fi. From his earliest work, in Shivers (1975), Rabid (1977) and The Brood (1979), the Canadian director subverted B-movie horror tropes to tell disturbing tales of psychological torment Later films, including Scanners (1981), Videodrome (1983), Dead Ringers (1988), Naked Lunch (1991), and eXistenZ (1999), use the science fiction genre to provide a subversive critique of modern,...

David Cronenberg will receive the honorary Donostia Award at the 70th San Sebastian Film Festival. The gala ceremony will be followed by the presentation of Cronenberg’s latest film, “Crimes of the Future,” a daring science fiction movie starring Viggo Mortensen, Kristen Stewart and Lea Seydoux. The movie world premiered in competition at Cannes.

The celebrated Canadian filmmaker has so far directed 20 features including works considered today to be the classics of genres like sci-fi, horror, psychological drama and thriller.

San Sebastian previously welcomed Cronenberg in 2004 for the screening of “Crash” as part of the Incorrect@s retrospective, as well as in 2007 for the premiere of “Eastern Promises” on opening night.

Cronenberg joins the list of moviemakers to have received the Donostia Award, alongside Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen, Oliver Stone, Agnès Varda, Hirokazu Koreeda and Costa-Gavras, among others.

Besides “The Fly” and “eXistenZ,” some of Cronenberg’s most iconic...

David Cronenberg’s “Crimes of the Future” opened for general audiences this weekend without exactly lighting up the box office, which no one expected it to do.

The filmography of Cronenberg has been one that has brought unadulterated respect from cinephiles, while never having the populist appeal to breakout into huge commercial translations or awards attention. While it’s never too late to become an Oscar darling, unless the King of Body Horror is going to make a drastic switch in style and genre, it would be criminal for him to have no industry acknowledgment as a prolific auteur. The honorary Oscar is the perfect tool for such a distinction.

Despite telling an ambitious allegory of art, autism, global warming, awards season, relationships and perhaps a dozen others that can be picked out upon multiple viewings, “Crimes of the Future” is far too cerebral for mainstream awards attention.

When the...

David Cronenberg confirmed in a recent interview with World of Reel that it was Robert Pattinson who first introduced him to Kristen Stewart, one of the stars of his latest body horror shocker “Crimes of the Future.” Pattinson was a Cronenberg muse for a brief period after leading the director’s movies “Cosmopolis” and “Maps to the Stars.” The Stewart-starring “Crimes of the Future” is Cronenberg’s first feature directorial effort since “Maps” released in 2014.

“It was Robert who actually introduced me to Kristen. They have developed beautifully, separately, as actors,” Cronenberg said. “Making arthouse movies and successfully carrying that off. Kristen and I had a great time and Rob and I had a great time. For me, yeah, I can definitely think of a movie, or idea, that would be great to have them both together.”

Cronenberg added, “I don’t want to get into it because it wouldn’t be my next movie,...

This year’s Canadian entry has a touch of Greece in it as David Cronenberg shot his latest film with a whiff of the Aegean sea. His sixth trip to the competition, Cronenberg first entered with a splash with Crash (1996), Spider (2002), A History of Violence (2005), Cosmopolis (2012) and finally, Maps to the Stars in 2014. Almost a decade later he arrives with Crimes of the Future which features Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux, Kristen Stewart, and Don McKellar.

Here is the storyline directly from the Neon folks: As the human species adapts to a synthetic environment, the body undergoes new transformations and mutations.…...

When it rains it pours, and after a long drought David Cronenberg is present as ever. It’d be satiating enough were we only days from a Cannes premiere for Crimes of the Future, his first film in eight years, and weeks from its theatrical release; then came word he’s already at work on a new, Vincent Cassel-starring feature The Shrouds. Not for nothing our own Nick Newman scored an excellent interview with Cronenberg—mostly on the subject of his kidney stones, but with a few Crimes tidbits for good measure.

And now a standard-issue publicity-drumming interview for Variety has revealed some key details on his current status—most surprisingly notice that work is underway on a feature adaptation of his 2014 novel Consumed, a project he’d initially claimed would go to Netflix in mini-series form but, per him, they’d rejected after two episodes were written.

Cronenberg...

After being cancelled in 2020 and then delayed in 2021, the Cannes Film Festival is finally back on track for May 2022 on the French Riviera. The 75th installment of the international cinema showcase will take place from May 17 to May 28, and there will be 18 films competing for the coveted Palme d’Or, the festival’s top prize. Last year that honor went to the French thriller “Titane,” directed by Julia Ducournau. As of this writing several details are still to be announced including who will be on this year’s jury and who will be serving as jury president after Spike Lee presided over last year’s program.

A filmmaker’s previous track record at Cannes can sometimes give us an idea of who’s in a good position to claim the Palme. For instance, seven of this year’s entries in the official competition come from directors who have previously won...

"Cosmopolis" is an odd movie. Most of the film is spent in 28-year-old Wall Street wizard Eric Packer's (Robert Pattinson) stretch limousine on his way to an unnecessary haircut. As he sits in bumper-to-bumper traffic, he is losing millions of dollars on the stock market, but he doesn't seem to care. In fact, throughout the entire film, Packer doesn't care about anything.

We spend the entire film with him. We watch as he has sex, discusses his impending financial ruin, and even gets a prostate exam, all inside his stretch limo. But the world continues outside his fancy ride. The U.S. President is threatened and anarchists...

The post Why Robert Pattinson Was Scared While Working On David Cronenberg's Cosmopolis appeared first on /Film.

David Cronenberg is back, baby! And his new film, "Crimes of the Future" looks as gross and chilling as you'd expect from the director's return to body horror. 

After scaring an entire generation of filmgoers with movies that exposed how disgusting and malleable the human body could be, like "The Fly," "Shivers" and "eXistenZ," Cronenberg turned his eye to drama work. The Canadian director then gave us the very last VHS release with the fantastic and accessible "A History of Violence" as well as one of the first films to showcase what a great actor Robert Pattinson is in "Cosmopolis."

Now, eight years...

The post Crimes of the Future Teaser: Kristen Stewart, Viggo Mortensen Get Freaky in David Cronenberg's Return to Body Horror appeared first on /Film.

Samantha Morton is headed back to the world of The Walking Dead.

AMC confirmed Friday that the fan favorite would appear on the forthcoming Tales of the Walking Dead anthology.

If you watch The Walking Dead online, you know the character was a big villain throughout The Walking Dead Season 9 and The Walking Dead Season 10.

However, Morton's widely praised run came to a halt when Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) murdered her in a brutal fashion.

Fans already took a trip to the past with Alpha during a flashback episode that witnessed how she became the merciless killer.

Alpha was the leader of the Whisperers, a group that traveled with hordes of zombies by donning zombie skin.

She is up there as one of the best villains on the series, and the after-effects of the group's actions continue to have a ripple effect on The Walking Dead Season 11, which takes place several years later.

Samantha Morton is returning to the world of “The Walking Dead,” with the actress set to appear in the upcoming anthology series “Tales of the Walking Dead” at AMC.

Morton will star in an episode of “Tales of the Walking Dead” as Alpha, the villainous character she played in Seasons 9 and 10 of the hit zombie apocalypse series. Alpha was the leader of The Whisperers, a group that survived by donning zombie skin in order to move freely among the undead and then attacking other living humans for resources. The exact plot details of her episode are being kept under wraps.

In addition to her work on “The Walking Dead,” Morton has also starred in shows like “Harlots,” “Max and Ruby,” and “The Last Panthers.” She is known for starring in films like “Minority Report,” “The Messenger,” and “Cosmopolis.” She is repped by Omni Artists Ltd.

“Tales of the Walking Dead...

It is officially out of vogue to hold the "Twilight" movies against either Krysten Stewart or Robert Pattinson.

In the years since their first major appearances in the industry with the vampire blockbuster, both actors have gone on to reestablish themselves as two of the most compelling and must-watch actors around. Pattinson in particular has used his franchise windfall to turn his career toward much more interesting directions. The "Tenet" and "The Batman" actor has starred in all sorts of low-budget indies and repeatedly collaborated with some of the best filmmakers, making original and unique movies. Those names include David Cronenberg's "Cosmopolis" in 2012 (a role that...

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Matt Reeves’s “The Batman” opened on March 4, giving people a chance to see the amazing cast he was able to put together to reinvent DC Comics’ Dark Knight in a new and novel, yet still appropriately nocturnal way. The crazy thing about this cast, though, is that not a single one of the main actors has ever been nominated for an Academy Award, although their work in “The Batman” is certainly going to bring them more attention over the next several months.

Beginning with the new Batman/Bruce Wayne, Robert Pattinson has come a long way since his role as Edward Cullen in the “Twilight Saga,” which amassed $3.3 billion worldwide over the course of five movies. Pattinson starred in that franchise with Kristen Stewart, who finally received her very first Oscar nomination last month for “Spencer,” but Pattinson has also been doing his fair share of prestige films since leaving “Twilight.

Denis Villeneuve and David Cronenberg have more in common than being Canadian. Both have made films about the trauma and obsession people experience in relation to car crashes. Both are drawn to projects about people who lose themselves in an abyss of self-destructive obliteration. Both have remade well-regarded, 30-year-old science fiction films ("The Fly" and "Blade Runner 2049"). Both have worked with actress Sarah Gadon ("Enemy" and "Cosmopolis").  And, most notably for our purposes, both have made films about buttoned-down professionals who have duplicates ("Enemy" and "Dead Ringers"). 

"Dead Ringers," released in 1988, was based on the...

The post The Classic Horror Movie Denis Villeneuve Thinks Is Traumatic appeared first on /Film.

Before The Batman, Robert Pattinson was sparkly vampire Edward Cullen. And before that he was Hufflepuff’s star seeker Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter. But in between his heartthrob era and none-more-moody Batman times, Pattinson did some really interesting stuff.

The actor has traversed genres and styles, flipping from studio films to indies, and some of his most fascinating work has often gone under the radar. If you want more of Pattinson after watching The Batman, here’s a list of some of the actor’s finest turns, from supporting roles and stand out turns in ensemble pieces to heavy hitting leading roles. Give the man an Oscar!

Cosmopolis (2012)

The same year that the final part of the Twilight saga arrived in cinemas, Pattinson’s first collaboration with director David Cronenberg was in competition at Cannes. Based on the novel by Don DeLillo, the movie follows a young billionaire (Pattinson...

A new actor playing Batman may be the most daunting task in Hollywood. Arguably no character attracts more attention, and the franchise’s history of combining blockbuster spectacle with serious acting places pressure on each actor to put their own spin on the DC superhero.

Robert Pattinson was certainly up for the task, as the former “Twilight” star spent a decade honing his acting chops with arthouse films like “Good Time” and “Cosmopolis,” but “The Batman” still posed its own unique challenge.

Pattinson is significantly younger than his predecessor Ben Affleck was when he donned the cape and cowl, so his performance would inevitably differ from Affleck’s grisled take on the character. For their interpretation, Affleck and director Matt Reeves mined both fiction and recent history for examples of men who come into vast wealth at very young ages to craft a blueprint for their version of Bruce Wayne.

It is fitting that All My Puny Sorrows is making its world premiere at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. This is a quintessential TIFF film. There is the lovely Mongrel Media animated logo opening the proceedings. The setting is a blustery Winnipeg. It has an illustrious pedigree, based on a bestselling and award-winning novel from beloved Canadian author Miriam Toews. The cast features festival favorites Alison Pill and Sarah Gadon. And the director, Michael McGowan, has a hockey musical (!) in his past.

None of these elements should be considered problematic––well, perhaps the hockey musical. And yet they all contribute to the sense of overfamiliarity and predictability that burden All My Puny Sorrows. It is by no means a misfire and features a trio of tremendous performances from Pill, Gadon, and Mare Winningham. But given the source material and the ingredients, Sorrows certainly qualifies as a disappointment.

Dealing with sisterherhood,...

Canadian actor Sarah Gadon told Variety Saturday she was “really happy” with the decisions of Venice’s main jury this year, on which she served alongside Bong Joon-ho, Saverio Costanzo, Virginie Efira, Cynthia Erivo, Alexander Nanau and last year’s Golden Lion winner Chloé Zhao.

The jury gave the Golden Lion to French director Audrey Diwan’s powerful abortion drama “Happening,” while Italian director Paolo Sorrentino’s semi-autobiographical coming-of-age drama “The Hand of God” took the runner-up grand jury prize.

“I feel that our choices are very strong and we all arrived at a place where we were unanimous about them,” she said, admitting that the discussions about the presented films weren’t just restricted to four jury meetings. “We often spoke after the screenings. It just felt natural,” she said.

Gadon, who studied film theory and criticism at university, was vocal about her excitement over joining the jury, writing...

My reasoning for discussing David Cronenberg's Scanners for this year's “Class of 1981” is two-fold: 1. I don't remember how old I was exactly, but I distinctly remember the VHS cover artwork grabbing my attention during a brief trip to Blockbuster with my mom - of course, she didn't rent it for me - and 2. After all these years, I never got the chance to watch it!

In a weird way, I'm really glad that my mom didn't let me watch Scanners. That distorted face of a man screaming with his eyes bulging out left a sense of mystery and dread in my mind for years. I miss when movie posters piqued your interest and the imagery alone made you want to watch the movie. I suppose life, other films, TV shows, and projects of my own are what kept me from ever watching Scanners until now, but I've watched the...

Following the real-life, gruesome discovery of 215 Indigenous children in a mass grave at a church-run residential school in British Columbia, Prospero Pictures and Cree Metis writer Shannon Masters are set to turn Michelle Good’s Five Little Indians novel into a limited TV series.

Prospero Pictures is the shingle for Martin Katz, who produced David Cronenberg films like Spider, A Dangerous Method, Cosmopolis and Maps to the Stars, which earned Julianne Moore the best actress Palme d’Or in Cannes. Masters has writing credits for TV series with strong female leads like Coroner, Cardinal and Burden of Truth, and the feature film Empire of Dirt.

Five Little Indians, released ...

Following the real-life, gruesome discovery of 215 Indigenous children in a mass grave at a church-run residential school in British Columbia, Prospero Pictures and Cree Metis writer Shannon Masters are set to turn Michelle Good’s Five Little Indians novel into a limited TV series.

Prospero Pictures is the shingle for Martin Katz, who produced David Cronenberg films like Spider, A Dangerous Method, Cosmopolis and Maps to the Stars, which earned Julianne Moore the best actress Palme d’Or in Cannes. Masters has writing credits for TV series with strong female leads like Coroner, Cardinal and Burden of Truth, and the feature film Empire of Dirt.

Five Little Indians, released ...