Sure, the usual Oscar contenders did the rounds at the reconvening AFI Awards lunch, which finally took place (at the Beverly Wilshire) after several postponements to celebrate the top 10 films and TV shows of 2021. But what always distinguishes this gathering is the way it brings together not only Oscar and Emmy contending talent, but the power players at the top of the studio and streamer pyramid. “Storytellers, we need you more than ever,” said AFI chief Bob Gazzale as he greeted the starry assemblage....

“Everybody is trying to figure out ways of making more diverse cinema,” Cuarón said by phone last week. “The interesting thing is that it’s not coming naturally. Everybody has to respond to outside pressures. That’s a little bit disappointing — that it needs to go through rules and regulations for things to happen when it should just be a natural process of societal evolution that apparently is not happening.” Cuarón has a more specific way to support filmmaking from backgrounds other than his own....

The opening of Season 2 is a bit of a fakeout. Our stalwart young vet on the rise, James Herriot (Nicholas Ralph), is making his way through Glasgow on a return visit home. The streets are busier, the clinic where he’s pitching in has sharper and more modern equipment. James is happy, but his smile is muted. The full glint in his eye doesn’t return until he’s back in Darrowby, working under Siegfried’s direction alongside the younger Farnon brother Tristan (Callum Woodhouse)....

Live sports programming is a relatively unexplored genre on most major streaming services but Prime Video is among several streamers that are beginning to give sports more mind in an effort to attract potential subscribers. Among the others, NBCUniversal’s Peacock has heavily invested in sports programming and is exclusively streaming a variety of events from the ongoing Tokyo Summer Olympics. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news!...

The late Grammy winner, who died in 2011 at age 27, will be at the center of a musical biopic helmed by Sam Taylor-Johnson (“Fifty Shades of Grey,” “A Million Little Pieces”). Deadline first reported that Studiocanal is backing the film, currently titled “Back to Black” after Winehouse’s hit album. Matt Greenhalgh is penning the script, teaming up again with director Taylor-Johnson after collaborating on 2009’s John Lennon story “Nowhere Boy....

Where to Watch ‘Schmigadoon!’: Apple TV+ It’s no surprise that Ariana DeBose is soaring her way through awards season, complete with a “Saturday Night Live” hosting gig for good measure. Her breakout role as Anita in the “West Side Story” screen revival is the kind of performance that demands your attention at all times, whether she’s twirling around a gym floor, dancing through the New York City streets, or grieving in an apartment hallway....

Here’s the official synopsis: “Following a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, a group of mercenaries take the ultimate gamble, venturing into the quarantine zone to pull off the greatest heist ever attempted.” The cast includes Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Ana De La Reguera, Theo Rossi, Matthias Schweighöfer, Nora Arnezeder, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Garret Dillahunt, Tig Notaro, Raúl Castillo, Huma Qureshi, Samantha Win, Richard Cetrone, and Michael Cassidy. Notaro was hired to replace Chris D’Elia back in August of 2020 in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against the actor and comedian....

Showtime, The CW, and Warner Bros. Discovery all dropped out of the TCA event, which typically takes place twice a year and spans several weeks. Showtime was set to present on July 29; now that date sits open, as does Warner Bros. Discovery’s date of August 9. National Geographic swooped in to replace The CW, which vacated July 31. Dropouts are not unheard of, but vacating a TCA date usually means that the network swaps it for another one....

After the writer-director revealed there is a four-hour version of the Elvis Presley biopic starring Austin Butler as the King of Rock ‘n Roll, Luhrmann noted that fans have been metaphorically wielding pitchforks on Twitter begging for the 240-minutes of footage. “I tell you what, all my tweets are nothing but, ‘We want the four-hour version! We want the four-hour version!’” Luhrmann told ScreenRant. “I think people are at my gates with pitchforks saying, ‘We want the four-hour version!...

“Friends,” the beloved hit series that introduced us to Ross (David Schwimmer), Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), Monica (Courtney Cox), Chandler (Matthew Perry), Joey (Matt LeBlanc), and Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow), and a host of side characters (Gunther, Janice, and Carol, to name a few), made its network television debut on September 22, 1994. The sitcom, about six friends navigating life in New York City, catapulted a cast of relative unknowns into superstardom, and the show is still popular....

Anyone who has tried to dabble in screenwriting knows that the barriers to entry are far higher than they initially seem. In addition to the artistic aspects, which can take a lifetime to master, there is a multitude of formatting rules that must be adhered to, and a poorly spaced margin or a misplaced slugline in a script is a dead giveaway that the writer needs to take their craft more seriously....

The news was formally announced late Friday after news of the deal broke early Friday. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but CNBC, which first reported the news, reported that Plan B is said to be worth in the hundreds of millions of dollars range but below $500 million. Plan B first announced an intention to explore a sale of its assets or an investor back in October, and the sale is the latest example in a wave of M&A activity across Hollywood over the last few years....

Fraser attended virtualy from Oklahoma (via Entertainment Weekly), where he’s already filming “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Scorsese’s film is based on David Grann’s non-fiction book “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI,” which investigates a series of murders that plagued the Osage people in Osage County, Oklahoma during the 1920s after valuable oil was discovered on their land. The Osage people were granted in court the right to profit from oil found on their land, which made them the target of greedy ranch owners....

And I fell in love, both as a cinephile admiring Keaton’s transformation of the language of cinema, and a girl with a crush on a handsome movie star. But it wasn’t just Keaton’s balletic fearless athleticism; something sad behind his eyes drew me in. I read the Rudi Blesh biography, and learned about Keaton’s rough and tumble youth on the Vaudeville circuit, where his father Joe started throwing him around the stage as a toddler — for laughs....

As explained to Collider during a recent interview, Crowe said he’s actually kicked around ideas for doing a “Jerry Maguire” followup, and he’d specifically want to tell the story of Gooding, Jr.’s Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Rod Tidwell and his wife Marcee. She’s played by Regina King, who just hosted “Saturday Night Live” and is in the Oscar mix this year for her feature directorial debut “One Night in Miami....

Over 8,000 have already signed a change.org petition to “Save The Cinerama Dome.” By “save,” the petitioners want the Dome to continue its service as a landmark location for premier exhibition. Now that Arclight Theaters has declined to continue in that role, making that happen will require an exhibitor who shares that appetite in a fractured and uncertain business environment. However, there’s also the other kind of “save.” High-rises are going up all over Hollywood; could a developer bulldoze the historic dome to make way for more luxury condos?...

The majority of the jury has deep connections with the Cannes Film Festival. Mati Diop won the Grand Prix at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival with “Atlantics,” while Jessica Hausner also competed at Cannes 2019 with “Little Joe,” which won star Emily Beecham the Best Actress prize. Tahar Rahim got his breakout in Jacques Audiard’s Grand Prix-winning “A Prophet.” Melanie Laurent starred in Quentin Tarantino’s Palme d’Or contender “Inglourious Basterds,” while Kleber Mendonça Filho recently won the Jury Prize with “Bacurau....

Competition “The Eight Mountains,” Charlotte Vandermeersch, Felix Van Groeningen “Un Petit Frère,” Leonor Serraille “Tourment Sur Les Iles,” Albert Serra Cannes Premiere “Don Juan,” Serge Bozon “La Nuit du 12,” Dominik Moll “Chronicle of a Temporary Affair,” Emmanuel Mouret Midnight Screenings “Rebel,” Adil Arbi, Bilall Fallah Un Certain Regard “More Than Ever,” Emily Atef “Mediterranean Fever,” Maha Haj “The Blue Caftan,” Maryam Touzani Out of Competition “L’Innocent,” Louis Garrel Special Screenings “Mi Pais Imaginario,” Patricio Guzmán “The Vagabonds,” Doroteya Droumeva “Riposte Feministe,” Marie Perennes, Simon Depardon “Restos do Vento,” Tiago Guedes “Little Nicholas,” Amandine Fredon, Benjamin Massoubre...

Years, if not months, earlier such a clear-cut request and response could’ve been seen as a justifiable rationale to air Trump’s pre-taped address without warning or censorship. The Capitol was under siege by Trump supporters, and any attempt to end the violence was worth a shot. Plus, who would call out cable or network news for showing something both presidents wanted the country to see? But on Wednesday, after years of putting Trump’s speeches through exhaustive fact-checks and suffering through power-hungry ratings ploys, the news anchors proved a bit smarter than that....

The actor, who settled two lawsuits in 2010 accusing him of sexual harassment on the set of Joaquin Phoenix’s mockumentary film “I’m Still Here,” harnessed his “more personal failures” to transform into musician Donnie Emerson for musical biopic “Dreamin’ Wild.” The film, which premiered at the 2022 Venice Film Festival, is written and directed by Bill Pohlad (“Love & Mercy”) and tells the story of musical duo Donnie and Joe Emerson after their 1979 self-recorded album is re-discovered decades later....