As a multitasker, Affleck occupies an odd Hollywood niche. His star took off when he and buddy Matt Damon won the 1998 Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for “Good Will Hunting.” Damon went on to become a respected movie star, notching three acting Oscar nominations, but Affleck’s talents were shadowed by romantic partners like Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Garner (to whom he was married for 13 years), Playboy model Shauna Sexton, and most recently, his 31-year-old costar on the pandemic-delayed psychological thriller “Deep Water,” Ana de Armas (“Knives Out”)....

“They dug out two stages of Disney for huge asteroid craters, and I didn’t even think about the fact that the basic premise of the movie was totally absurd,” he said. “Why are they training oil drillers to be astronauts rather than astronauts to be oil drillers? You would think the learning curve would be somewhat more steep on the oil-drillers-to-astronauts route. But it was fun and the right time....

One of the things that makes the magical world of Harry Potter so appealing is that it gives fans a chance to escape into a rich world of possibilities. Fans of Harry Potter’s massive universe of wizardry have lots of characters to fall in love with, from the wand-slinging protagonist himself to his sidekicks, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, and other characters such as Severus Snape, Bellatrix Lestrange, Draco Malfoy, Dolores Umbridge, Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, Dobby, and even Lord Voldemort....

Last Year’s Winner: “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch” Still Eligible: No. Hot Streak: Not even the return of Seth Bullock and Al Swearengen could put a stop to “Black Mirror’s” streak. The Netflix anthology series has won three years running, first for the episode titled “San Junipero,” then for the episode titled “U.S.S. Callister,” and most recently for the interactive special titled “Bandersnatch.” Fun Fact: While “Black Mirror” is the only program to win the category more than once, it’s not the most nominated program in the TV Movie category....

“Initially, there was discussions about everything, about all of the different characters,” director Cate Shortland told Total Film magazine. “What we decided was, and I think Kevin was really great, he said, ‘She doesn’t need the boys.’ We didn’t want it to feel like she needs the support. We want her to stand alone. And she does.” Prior to the film’s release, Shortland spoke to IndieWire about another way the film distinguished itself from the larger MCU: Graphic violence....

In a recent New York Times interview promoting director Jason Woliner’s “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” Baron Cohen opened up about the toll of the process, which takes method acting to a whole new level. “The hardest thing I had to do was, I lived in character for five days in this lockdown house. I was waking up, having breakfast, lunch, dinner, going to sleep as Borat when I lived in a house with these two conspiracy theorists....

“Brad did 95 percent of his physical stunts — the fighting,” Greg Rementer, the second-unit director and stunt coordinator on “Bullet Time,” recently told Vulture. “He’s like a natural-born athlete. He really got in there!” Rementer said Pitt’s worth ethic extended to the entire cast, adding, “Never have I ever done so many huge actors in one feature where all of them excelled at the physical movement of our training....

There are times when “Brand New Cherry Flavor” seems to exist in its own universe. The Netflix series, based on Todd Grimson’s book of the same name, takes place in an early-’90s Los Angeles, bathed in equal layers of possibility and dread. Lisa Nova (Rosa Salazar) arrives in this thick rainbow soup of a city with only one valuable item in tow: a short film called “Lucy’s Eye” that transfixes anyone who watches it....

Broadway is back! September 14 marks the return of “The Lion King,” “Hamilton,” “Wicked,” and more fan favorite stage productions. The long-awaited Broadway revival comes a year and a half after the pandemic forced theaters to close their doors. As actors and audiences gear up for the return of the Great White Way, we put together a list of gifts that are perfect for lovers of musical theater. Other beloved musicals including “Mamma Mia,” “My Fair Lady,” and “West Side Story” are available to stream or rent on Prime Video....

Bouncing back from 2020 — during which the lauded festival did not host an actual event, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but did at least announce which films it would have included — Cannes has returned with a stuffed Selection, including 63 total films, accounting for a comparably large Competition section and an entirely new section in Cannes Premiere. Only 18 of those films are directed by one or more women, meaning that roughly 29 percent of the total lineup has at least one female director (two films are co-directed by two women)....

Where to Watch “Channel Zero”: Shudder or AMC+ (all four seasons originally aired on Syfy) There are times when living in the world of “Channel Zero” feels like a luxury. That may seem like an odd thing to say if you know that the four anthology seasons of the Syfy show were occasionally marked by brutal dismemberments, hypnotic cannibals, and childhood terrors made manifest. But even still, there’s an unusual calmness to how much of these seasons play out....

These days, Cox’s Daredevil is more entangled in the world of Disney than ever before. Following his “Spider-Man” cameo, the actor teased that he has had some early discussions with Marvel about potentially reprising his role in some other capacity, although he admits that he does not know much about the studio’s plans. And all of Netflix’s “Defenders” shows were recently pulled from the streaming service and moved to Disney+, where they will stream alongside MCU originals like “WandaVision” and “Moon Knight....

Universal chief Donna Langley spoke publicly about the upcoming Nolan project for the first time on Thursday, at The Information’s Women in Tech, Media and Finance conference. She confirmed that the $100 million biographical drama about J. Robert Oppenheimer would be released exclusively in theaters for between 90 and 120 days. Not only is that longer than Universal’s pandemic-era exclusive windows, which range from 17 to 31 days, that range is longer than the standard 90-day window that was shattered amid the global crisis....

The series is a mix of autobiography, detailing Kaepernick’s life growing up as the Black adopted son in a white family living in Turlock, California, as well as social commentary discussing the history of racism within professional sports. This latter element is established immediately as Kaepernick, ensconced in a square room for the series, shows us footage of football players being selected and trained for teams before eventually transforming into a slave auction....

“I don’t think of myself as this made-for-TV person. I hope that the fun of the show is that it’s like, ‘Oh, this is like a kind of a goofy guy, just bouncing around the world.’ I just want to show you this amazing thing that I found out, you know?” Nasser told IndieWire. In “Connected,” Nasser travels the world, outlining the fascinating (and sometimes fragile) connections between ideas and objects as seemingly disparate as migratory bird patterns, musical frequencies, and lunar bacteria....

During a Los Angeles Q&A for “Babylon” (via Entertainment Weekly) this November, Chazelle told the audience that he prepared for filming by rehearsing and shooting a full two-hour version of the movie in his backyard. To accomplish the task, Chazelle roped in his wife, Olivia Hamilton, who plays silent film director Ruth Adler in the movie and his leading man Diego Calva, to play every part in the film. “We rehearsed the whole movie in his backyard, only Olivia, Damien and I,” Calva said at the Q&A....

FX announced on Monday that Boyle, the director behind praised films such as “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Steve Jobs,” and “Trainspotting,” will direct and executive produce “Pistol,” a six-episode limited series about the legendary Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones. The series is created by Craig Pearce, who serves as co-writer alongside Frank Cottrell Boyce. “Pistol” stars Toby Wallace (“Babyteeth,” “Acute Misfortune”) as Steve Jones, Anson Boon (“Crawl,” “1917,” “Blackbird”) as John Lydon, Louis Partridge (“Enola Homes,” “Medici”) as Sid Vicious, Jacob Slater as Paul Cook, Fabien Frankel (“The Serpent,” “NYPD Blue”) as Glen Matlock, Dylan Llewellyn (“Derry Girls”) as Wally Nightingale, Sydney Chandler (“Don’t Worry Darling”) as Chrissie Hynde, Emma Appleton (“The Witcher,” “Traitors”) as Nancy Spungen, and Maisie Williams (“Game of Thrones”) as punk icon Jordan....

“It feels terrifying. I’m nervous about it. I’m really nervous,” Bautista said about being cast in the movie, which is expected to begin filming in Greece later this year. “It’s one of those things where now the pressure’s on, because people are expecting things from you. I want to deliver. I take pride in that. I’m a game player. I want to throw a touchdown pass.” Indeed, Bautista is a strategic maneuverer, having chosen “Army of the Dead” over starring in his “Guardians of the Galaxy” director James Gunn’s upcoming “The Suicide Squad” in order to get a foot in the door at Netflix....

“I sort of felt I’d done that already with ‘Shivers’ and ‘Rabid,” the filmmaker told IndieWire during an interview at the Cannes Film Festival, while sitting on a hotel balcony at the Cannes Film Festival, referencing movies he made four decades ago. “Of course, the whole ‘body is reality’ thing is very real for me. Things that affect the human body are very basic, primitive and essential.” “Body is reality” is one of many provocative lines from “Crimes of the Future,” the 79-year-old auteur’s first feature in eight years, which premieres in Cannes this week....

Products featured are independently selected by our editorial team and we may earn a commission from purchases made from our links. It’s well known that David Lynch enjoys a damn fine cup of coffee, but the man is serious about his commitment to caffeine: He’s even got his own coffee line. It makes sense that the filmmaker wouldn’t go the standard celebrity beverage route with a liquor brand — this is a man so serious about coffee that he remembers his first cup at the tender age of three....