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Exclusive: Verve is expanding its talent and literary divisions with the hires of Jennifer Trofa as a TV Literary Agent and Allison Nguyen as a Talent Agent.

Trofa joins Verve from Range, where she worked as a manager since 2020. Before that, she held roles at UTA in both the Motion Picture and TV Lit departments. She has worked with a talent roster that includes Laura Moran, Owen Thiele, Ilana Glazer, Nick Paley and Ashley Padilla, a new Verve client who was recently announced as a cast member for SNL’s 50th season.

At Verve, Trofa will play a pivotal role in expanding the agency’s presence in both comedy and drama. “I’m beyond honored to have joined Verve, an agency that genuinely walks the talk on creative-driven representation and advocacy. There is nothing like Verve’s forward-thinking culture and the dedicated and inspired team here,” said Trofa.

Nguyen moves to Verve from UTA,...

Former Jeopardy! champ Winston Nguyen has been arrested on child porn charges, prosecutors said.

Nguyen, 37, surrendered in Brooklyn today after a probe into accusations involving explicit photos and minors, authorities said. Nguyen’s arrest comes a few years after he appeared twice on Jeopardy! and won one episode.

Prosecutors claim Nguyen allegedly preyed upon six students from elite schools — including Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn Heights, where he taught math to students.

Nguyen allegedly exchanged messages with students on Snapchat, pretending to be a teenager at least 11 times while trying to get students to send him photos. His phone and other devices purportedly containing images of several minors were seized.

He will be arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court on charges of using a child in a sexual performance and promoting a sexual performance by a child, among other counts.

The criminal complaint will then go to a grand jury for a potential indictment.

A former Jeopardy! champion was arrested and charged with soliciting sexually explicit images of children. The incident happened in Brooklyn Heights, N.Y., and he was arrested initially in June. According to the charges, he was involved in sexual predator practices for over two years before his arrest.

Here is what you need to know about the terrifying situation.

Former Jeopardy! Champion Arrested For Child Porn

Police arrested former Jeopardy! champion Winston Nguyen and charged him with soliciting sexually explicit images of children (via The New York Times). According to the arrest report, Nguyen has been charged with use of a child in a sexual performance, promoting a sexual performance by a child, and disseminating indecent material to a minor, among other charges.

Winston Nguyen from Jeopardy

The terrifying part of the news is that Nguyen was working as a math teacher at Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn Heights,...

Former Jeopardy! champion Winston Nguyen, who appeared on the game show in 2014, has been charged with soliciting sexually explicit images of children. An ex-teacher at an elite private school, Nguyen was arrested in front of students in June, according to The New York Times, who revealed Nguyen had taught Math at Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn Heights. It is purported that between October 2022 and May 2024, Nguyen pretended to be a teenager and “fellow student” on 11 separate occasions, on social media, and both solicited and attempted to solicit students into sending him “images of nudity and sexual performances,” according to prosecutors from the Brooklyn district attorney’s office. Noam Galai/Getty Images for AOL The 37-year-old Nguyen, who lives in Harlem, used two different Snapchat accounts to exchange messages with the children which included five girls and one boy, all between the ages of 13 and 15. The teens attended four different private schools in Brooklyn,...

No need to wait three decades for a spell, because the English dub of workplace romance anime Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! officially clocks in tomorrow on Crunchyroll with all twelve episodes at once! Here's the core cast and crew for the series: Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! English Dub Cast Adachi voiced by Daman Mills Kurosawa voiced by Dio Garner Tsuge voiced by Oscar Seung Fujisaki voiced by Emi Lo Rokkaku voiced by Conner Allison Matsuura voiced by Mallorie Rodak Mari voiced by Kelsey Poppen Minato voiced by Landon McDonald Udon voiced by Ariel Graham Asahina voiced by Daryl Mayfield Kusumoto voiced by Charles Nguyen Company Director voiced by Anthony Bowling Additional Voices: Bev Mageto, Rissa Mazzuca, Kalyn McCabe, Monet Lerner, John Gerhardt, Jack Reeder Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! English...

While in development for the Amazon Prime drama “Expats,” creator, writer and director Lulu Wang knew she had to pay tribute to the lives lost during the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Having been in China at that time as a child, she remembers how scared she was when her father nearly left to join the protest which ultimately led to the death of hundreds.

“My father was supposed to go to this protest and my mother said to him a speech, which is in the show. She said, ‘Out there, you are an ant. You can give your life and it will not make that big of a difference. They’ll forget about you. But you’re my whole world, and you’re Lulu’s whole world,'” Wang said during Variety‘s Night in the Writers Room on June 13. “I said to the studio and I said to [Nicole Kidman], ‘If I do this series,...

The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin

David Benioff and D.B. Weiss turned to the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy to help create their highly anticipated follow-up to Game of Thrones. Alongside Alexander Woo, they worked to parse a TV audience-friendly narrative from the popular, if scientifically dense, odyssey about an encounter with an alien civilization looking for a new and viable planet.

$34.49 $56.97 39% off Buy 'Remembrance of Earth's Past' trilogy on Amazon All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

The author of six novels, Doerr won the Pulitzer Prize for his 2014 novel about two teenagers on opposite sides of World War II. The Netflix miniseries — which also follows the tandem stories of Werner, the orphan forced to enlist as a Nazi soldier, and Marie-Laure, a blind girl sending radio broadcasts for the Allied soldiers — has garnered criticism for its relative dreariness, but its source material is full of hope and,...

The Captain (Hoa Xuande) is our guide through both Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel and the HBO limited series version of “The Sympathizer,” but he is also a mystery — most especially to himself. A communist spy who is pulled irresistibly towards the height of Western decadence (Los Angeles in the late ’70s) and depravity (a film set in the late ’70s), the goal of the show is to mirror Nguyen’s prose and give the viewer a visceral sense of The Captain’s alienation.

While the flashiest choice “The Sympathizer” makes is Robert Downey Jr. playing all the significant Western figures who attempt to influence The Captain, there are also smaller, subtler tortures within the show’s imagery itself. The cinematography (by “Decision To Leave” maestro Kim Ji-yong and “The Hurt Locker” veteran Barry Ackroyd) continually puts pressure on The Captain through a sense of heat, sickly light, and eyes just beyond the frame.

Julia Lester and Antonia Gentry in Prom Dates Image: Hulu As far back as they can remember, Prom Dates’ Hannah (Julia Lester) and Jess (Ginny & Georgia’s Antonia Gentry) always wanted to have a spectacular senior prom. At 13, the two even went as far as to make a blood pact,...

Projects about the Vietnam War and its aftermath are so plentiful as to be practically their own genre, and they’ve starred a who’s who of Hollywood icons, including John Wayne, Robert De Niro, Marlon Brando, Robin Williams, Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson and Christian Bale.

Notably missing from the casts — at least among the substantive speaking parts — have been performers of actual Vietnamese descent. That’s finally changed with The Sympathizer, HBO and A24’s limited series adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer-winning novel. Robert Downey Jr. (who also executive produces) and Sandra Oh are the big names involved, but they are led by relative newcomer Hoa Xuande and joined by Vietnamese costars to tell a story about spycraft and personal and collective identity immediately following the conflict, centering the people whose lives and country were torn apart as a result.

The Hollywood Reporter spoke with eight of...

There’s an awful lot of pressure that comes with adapting an acclaimed novel for the screen, especially if it won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. HBO teams up with A24, the indie production company behind Beef and Euphoria, to take on that challenge with its small-screen take on The Sympathizer, the best-selling 2015 novel by Vietnamese-American academic and author Viet Thanh Nguyen. Revered South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook, whose 2003 prison thriller Oldboy is said to have influenced Nguyen’s novel, leads the creative charge as co-creator, director, and writer alongside collaborator Don McKellar (Last Night), who is credited as co-showrunner and writer.

The upcoming HBO series “The Sympathizer” is bringing an unsung voice to a story that has been told and retold from the American point of view, providing actors like Sandra Oh a chance to finally be involved in a project that puts the Vietnamese refugee experience into focus.

“This perspective has been missing for 50 years,” said Oh, who plays the recurring role of Sofia.

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen, the miniseries boasts a majority-Vietnamese cast and crew, including celebrated “The Handmaiden” director and screenwriter Park Chan-wook and esteemed “The Joy Luck Club” actress Kieu Chinh.

Many of the acclaimed talent included are making their American film debuts, and others are getting their big breaks on the international stage. Duy Nguyen was raised in Hanoi, Vietnam, and later immigrated to Montreal, Canada. His story encapsulates Oh’s commitment to the series.

“He has such a deep emotional connection to this project,...

Even toward the end of The Sympathizer’s six-month shoot, Hoa Xuande would still sometimes look out over the set in disbelief and think, “Am I really sitting here? Are they really letting me do this?”

“This” would be toplining HBO and A24’s limited series adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a communist North Vietnamese agent (known only as The Captain) embedded on the American-backed South Vietnamese side. It’s a dream role for any actor who relishes a challenge — multilayered, multilingual, packed with drama, comedy, sex and action — on a project with an impeccable pedigree. The seven-part series not only co-stars Robert Downey Jr. (who also executive produces) and Sandra Oh but counts legendary director Park Chan-wook as co-showrunner.

“This show was going to work or not based on this piece of casting,” says executive producer Susan Downey. “Finding The Captain was the most...

Robert Downey Jr. may newly be wearing the title of Oscar winner, but the “Oppenheimer” star is shedding all semblance of self for Park Chan-wook’s “The Sympathizer.”

Downey is a chameleon in multiple roles for the HBO seven-episode limited series, co-showrun by Park and Don McKellar who both executive produce. “The Sympathizer” is based on Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name and is at once an espionage thriller and cross-culture satire about the struggles of a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist spy (Hoa Xuande) during the final days of the Vietnam War. As he starts his new life as a refugee in Los Angeles he learns that his spying days aren’t over.

“The Sympathizer” cast also includes Sandra Oh, Fred Nguyen Khan, Toan Le, Phanxine, Vy Le, Ky Duyen, Kieu Chinh, Duy Nguyen, and Alan Trong. The series is a co-production between A24 and HBO,...

Exclusive: The cast for the American High and Hartbeat Hulu movie Prom Dates has been set with Chelsea Handler and Best in Show‘s John Michael Higgins, but also Julia Lester, Antonia Gentry, Kenny Ridwan, Jt Neal, Jordan Buhat, Zión Moreno, and Terry Hu. The movie will hit the service this spring.

The Kim O. Nguyen directed, D.J. Mausner scripted movie follows best friends Jess and Hannah (Gentry and Lester), who make a pact at 13 to have the perfect senior prom. Despite the impending changes that college will bring over the next four years, the two are committed to honoring their prom pact. But with only 24 hours left before the big event, everything falls apart when they break up with each of their dates. Jess and Hannah are left with one night to find new dates and live out their middle-school fantasies.

Producers are Jeremy Garelick, Will Phelps and Molle DeBartolo...

Martyn Ford (“Shao Kahn”), Desmond Chiam (“King Jerrod”), Ana Thu Nguyen (“Sindel”), and Damon Herriman (“Quan Chi”) have been cast in the sequel to New Line’s hit 2021 action adventure “Mortal Kombat” based on the blockbuster video game franchise, New Line announced on Thursday morning.

The new additions join a cast which include Karl Urban as “Johnny Cage,” Tati Gabrielle as “Jade,” and Adeline Rudolph as “Kitana.”

The returning cast from “Mortal Kombat” includes Lewis Tan as “Cole Young”; Jessica McNamee as “Sonya Blade”; Josh Lawson as “Kano”; Tadanobu Asano as “Lord Raiden”; Mehcad Brooks as “Jax”; Ludi Lin as “Liu Kang”; Chin Han as “Shang Tsung”; Joe Taslim as “Bi-Han” and “Sub-Zero”; Hiroyuki Sanada as “Hanzo Hasashi” and “Scorpion”; Max Huang as “Kung Lao.”

Also Read:

‘Mortal Kombat 2’ Stages ‘Sabrina’ Reunion With Addition of Adeline Rudolph as Kitana

Simon McQuoid, who directed the 2021 film, is set to return.

Martyn Ford, Desmond Chiam, Ana Thu Nguyen and Damon Herriman have stepped into the ring for New Line’s face-crunching sequel to 2021’s Mortal Kombat.

At the same time, New Line has closed a slew of deals bringing back members of that first installment, including Lewis Tan as Cole Young, Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade and Josh Lawson as Kano.

Also returning are Tadanobu Asano as Lord Raiden, Mehcad Brooks as Jax, Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, Chin Han as Shang Tsung, Joe Taslim as Bi-Han and Sub-Zero, Hiroyuki Sanada as Hanzo Hasashi and Scorpion, and Max Huang as Kung Lao.

The actors join Karl Urban, Adeline Rudolph, and Tati Gabrielle, who have marquee roles in the sequel that is being helmed by Simon McQuoid, who directed the previous movie based on the video game franchise.

Written by Jeremy Slater, the sequel continues the story of a group of ragtag fighters,...

New Line has rounded out its cast for Mortal Kombat 2, with Martyn Ford (Red Sonja), Desmond Chiam (Joy Ride), Ana Thu Nguyen (Suka) and Damon Herriman (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) coming aboard for roles.

Ford will play villainous Outworld emperor Shao Kahn, with Chiam as Edenian King Jerrod, Nguyen as Queen Sindel and Herriman as Netherrealm demon Quan Chi.

New Line’s latest follows up its hit 2021 action adventure Mortal Kombat, based on the blockbuster video game franchise created by Ed Boon and John Tobias, which was released simultaneously in theaters and on the platform now known as Max in April 2021. Amidst an industry hit hard by Covid, the original opened at number one at the box office and went on to gross over $84M worldwide theatrically, also coming in as one of the most-watched titles in Max’s history.

While Mortal Kombat followed Mma fighter Cole Young...

Korea’s Anthology Studios and India’s Panorama Studios have partnered for the remake of the Drishyam franchise in Korea.

Panorama Studios is backed by producer Kumar Mangat Pathak, while Anthology Studios is founded by former Warner Bros. local Korean production head, Choi Jae-won (aka Jay Choi), “Parasite” actor Song Kang-ho and acclaimed director Kim Jee-woon. The trio previously worked together on 2016 film “The Age of Shadows.” Anthology’s “Cobweb,” directed by Kim, produced by Choi and starring Song, is premiering out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival on May 25.

The two studios will join hands for the Korean remake of the Drishyam franchise. The announcement was made at the India Pavilion in Cannes on Sunday by the two studios with Pathak and Choi present.

Written and directed by Jeetu Joseph, the Malayalam-language “Drishyam” (2013) was headlined by superstar Mohanlal. It followed a cable TV operator whose simple world splinters...

This weekend Screambox celebrates Earth Day with James Nguyen‘s authentically so-bad-it’s-good Birdemic: Shock and Terror, which is easily one of the best-worst movies ever made, as well as its sequels Birdemic 2 and the festival favorite Birdemic 3: Sea Eagle, which blew the roof off last year’s Fantastic Fest.

The first Birdemic was acquired out of a hilariously legendary screening in Park City, Utah during the Sundance Film Festival by Severin Films. It’s so raw, authentic, and comically terrible that it’s infinitely rewatchable. It also boasts the acting debut of Bloody Disgusting family member Whitney Moore, who has appeared in several horror films over the years and has become a well-known host in the metal and movie community.

All three films are now streaming on our Screambox platform!

In the brand new Birdemic 3: Sea Eagle, the birds are back in the latest from Severin Films...

New Delhi, March 26 (Ians) India capped off an outstanding campaign by finishing with the highest gold medals (four) at the Iba Womens World Boxing Championship after the nations illustrious pugilists Nikhat Zareen and Lovlina Borgohain recorded stellar victories by contrasting margins in the finals at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex here on Sunday.

The reigning World champion Nikhat (50kg) defeated Nguyen Thi Tam of Vietnam to win gold for a second consecutive year at the tournament while the Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Lovlina (75kg) claimed her maiden Worlds gold with a 5-2 win on points after the bout was reviewed against Caitlin Parker of Australia.

Alongside Nikhat and Lovlina, 2022 Commonwealth Games medallist Nitu Ghanghas (48kg) and three-time Asian medallist Saweety Boora (81kg) were the other gold medallists for the hosts. All pugilists were rewarded with Inr 82.7 lakh each in prize money for becoming World Champions.

Applauding the gold medallists, Ajay Singh,...

New Delhi, March 26 (Ians) Becoming only the second Indian female to have two World Championships gold medals to her name, the country’s illustrious pugilist Nikhat Zareen capped off an outstanding campaign at the Iba Womens World Boxing Championship with a stunning victory in the finals at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex, here on Sunday.

Living up to her name, the tenacious Nikhat (50kg) oozed class in her rampant display against the two-time Asian champion Nguyen Thi Tam of Vietnam and secured a thumping 5-0 win. The reigning World Champion asserted her dominance in the bout from the word go by landing accurate punches and using her quick feet to dodge the Vietnamese’s attacks.

The Indian’s breath-taking performance saw her prevail in the first round with a 5-0 scoreline before Nguyen bounced back in the second round with a 3-2 scoreline to set up a grand slam finish.

Asian-American cinema has been making significant steps forward recently, and “Supermarket Affairs”, by Vietnamese Nguyen Luong Hang (who has collaborated with Trinh Dinh Le Minh's in the award-winning debut feature “Goodbye Mother” ) is another testament to the fact, as it takes a rather amusing approach to life of Vietnamese immigrants in the US, inspired by Lynda Trang Dai's hit in the Vietnamese-American community “Supermarket Love Affair”, which is actually heard in the movie.

Supermarket Affairs is screening at Osaka Asian Film Festival

Mrs Hoa is an elderly Vietnamese woman who has moved to Houston to live with her daughter, after the death of her husband from lung cancer. As we watch her shopping in a supermarket in the beginning of the movie, the first issues she faces are revealed. She does not speak the language, so any kind of communication is a problem for her. Ha, her daughter,...

Based on a true story, The Accidental Getaway Driver follows the story of a Vietnamese driver, Long, when he becomes the unwilling getaway driver to three escaped convicts from Orange County jail. Tensions continue to rise when the four are forced to hide out in a motel and their pasts are slowly revealed.

In an exclusive interview with uInterview, Dustin Nguyen, who played Tây, one of the convicts, revealed what interested him most about the project.

“The story itself is quite compelling, being a real story, but the heart of the story about loneliness and the need for belonging and a search for what is home, resonated with me very strongly when I read the original story that broke in GQ Magazine and I could relate to a lot of those themes,” Nguyen said. “And more importantly, after 30 some years of working in the business, this is the first Vietnamese...

The premise is simple; it promises a comical, stranger-than-fiction thrill-ride. Late at night, an elderly Vietnamese cab driver begrudgingly agrees to a routine pickup where he’s taken hostage at gunpoint by three recently escaped Orange County convicts. Based on Paul Kix’s similarly titled GQ story, The Accidental Getaway Driver certainly begins at a tense pace, but over the course of a few days this enervating scenario shifts into a lower gear, becoming a scattered meditation on masculinity that wrings out just enough emotional truth to appease its multi-genre approach.

Against the clock, these three outlaws––Tây (Dustin Nguyen), Aden (Dali Benssalah) and Eddie (Phi Vu)––start crossing off the items on their escape-plan checklist: they get haircuts, make calls, stop at Wal-Mart, and demand obedience from Long (Hiep Tran Nghia), their involuntary wheelman attempting to stay calm while navigating Little Saigon under extreme pressure. When Aiden and Eddie...

When cabdriver Long (Hiep Tran Nghia) reluctantly sets out to pick up a fare near the start of The Accidental Getaway Driver, he has no way of knowing where the journey might take him. Even those of us in the audience, well aware of the title, might find it difficult to guess. Because although the film starts as the gritty crime thriller suggested by its core premise, it pivots, unexpectedly but effectively, into something much more tender.

From the minute we meet Long, it’s obvious what kind of existence he’s leading. He’s first seen alone in a shabby apartment, listening to an old CD so banged-up it hardly plays anymore. His neighbors can be seen and heard playing chess outside his window, but this elderly, worn-down soul seems to have no place among them. When he’s called for a job late at night, he grumbles but finally gives in.

Tears and Asian pride flowed on stage after the Sundance premiere of Accidental Getaway Driver, the feature debut of longtime commercials and music video director Sing J. Lee.

Based on true events in which a Vietnamese driver is kidnapped by three convicts and used to ferry them in their escape, the story seems ready-made for an “action thriller” adaptation. But Lee had other plans when he first read the 2017 GQ article on which it’s based.

“It seemed like it could be a certain kind of film,” said Lee at the movie’s post-screening Q&a. “But I immediately saw four human beings in this story that could embody so many part of my own family and life experiences or [be] seen in the life of my parents. I saw something so tender and fragile that I haven’t seen so much in the West. And I just felt this drive to...

This entire month has been loaded with fresh new nightmares, and we’re not slowing down in the final full week of January 2023. We’re getting Eight More new releases this week alone!

Here’s all the new horror releasing January 24-January 27, 2023…

For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.

First up, Universal and Blumhouse’s theatrical horror hit M3GAN is now available at home, the fan favorite film surprise-released for PVOD rental and/or purchase this morning.

M3GAN is a marvel of artificial intelligence, a life-like doll programmed to be a child’s greatest companion and a parent’s greatest ally. Designed by brilliant toy-company roboticist Gemma (Get Out’s Allison Williams), M3GAN can listen and watch and learn as she becomes friend and teacher, playmate and protector, for the child she is bonded to.

When Gemma suddenly becomes the caretaker of her orphaned 8-year-old niece,...

In the first third of “The Accidental Getaway Driver” you might think you’re in for the film of the festival at Sundance 2023. The setup is simple and suspenseful: Long (Hiệp Trần Nghĩa), an elderly Vietnamese immigrant who works as a driver is paid double for a late night assignment that turns out to be about keeping three escaped prisoners ahead of the law. When Tây (Dustin Nguyen), one of the convicts, points a gun at him to prevent him from bailing when he wants to get out, the tension ratchets up to the breaking point.

But “The Accidental Getaway Driver” is not the film of the festival. And though the tension ratchets up there near the beginning, that’s as high as it goes for the whole movie. Instead, it’s merely . When it starts, you think you’re in for the second coming of Michael Mann’s “Collateral,...

After premiering last year at Fantastic Fest, Birdemic 3: Sea Eagle, the third film in James Nguyen‘s authentic so-bad-it’s-good franchise, arrives on VOD platforms tomorrow!

In the latest from Severin Films, the birds are back, and global warming has them roiled!

“When global warming triggers climate chaos along the Northern California coast, two scientific researchers will discover tender romance, awkward dancing, overly earnest moralizing, appalling CGI, automatic weapons, and a plague of attacks by sea eagles that could lead to the extinction of life on earth. Or as one character wisely proclaims in this conclusion of Nguyen’s immortal cinematic vision, ‘We have to accept our fate. It is death.'”

Birdemic: Shock and Terror, which was somewhat of a revelation and easily one of the best bad movies ever made, was acquired out of a hilariously legendary screening in Park City, Utah during the Sundance Film Festival by Severin Films.

There's something liberating about watching an actor who's spent years working almost exclusively on a single major franchise take advantage of all the clout they've amassed to go off and tackle whatever wild role or bizarre project strikes their fancy. (Call it pulling a Daniel Radcliffe.) It seems Robert Downey Jr. was similarly eager to get his weird on after bidding adieu to the Marvel Cinematic Universe with 2019's "Avengers: Endgame." His first post-"Endgame" film, "Dolittle," was more ill-conceived than inspired, but after more than a decade of shooting countless heads-up display (Hud) shots and acting against green screens, perhaps Downey just needed to let off some steam by extracting a pair of bagpipes from a dragon's nether regions.

Be that the case or not, he's since worked on Chris Smith's acclaimed documentary about Downey's father, "Sr.," snagged a key role in Christopher Nolan's much-hyped historical drama "Oppenheimer,...

Every year, there are more bad movies made than anyone could ever watch in a lifetime. Between what is released directly to VOD or the many, many ultra low-budget flicks that make their way to Redbox via companies like The Asylum, it's overwhelming. But every once in a while, some of these B-movie exercises manage to break away and actually get through to people in a meaningful fashion. Such was the case with 2010's "Birdemic: Shock and Terror," director James Nguyen's ultra-low-budget creature feature that gained so-bad-it's-good cult status in the way few films can ever hope to achieve. It is probably near "The Room" in that regard.

Despite the cult status and midnight movie reputation, it seemed unlikely that it would spawn an entire franchise. And yet, here we are, in the year 2022, with "Birdemic 3: Sea Eagle" having recently premiered at Fantastic Fest, one of the premiere...

“Atlantis: The Lost Empire” producer Don Hahn had an anecdote about the ethos that drove that 2001 animated Disney film’s production. If other Disney animated films, the ones concerned with princesses and magic kingdoms, represent the Fantasyland area of a Disney theme park, the one you reach after passing through the castle, then he wanted “Atlantis” to be the Adventureland movie. This would be one where you turn left.

For “Strange World,” Walt Disney Animation Studios’ 61st (!) feature, they have decided to turn left again. “It’s funny, every time I walk down Main Street, I turn left,” said “Strange World” producer Ron Conli.

“Strange World” is the story of the Clades, led by the rugged adventurer Jaeger Clade (Dennis Quaid). After Jaeger goes missing on an expedition, his son Searcher (Jake Gyllenaal) grows up, maintaining the family name in a different way: he farms a powerful crop that has...

While Disney Animation has pulled back the curtain on what their upcoming feature "Strange World" is all about, there's still quite a bit about the movie that we have yet to see.

We know the movie centers around three generations of the Clade family, who find themselves thrown into a world where everything is alien and nothing is quite what it seems. Specifically, they journey beneath the surface of their planet, and encounter a world that is a bit ... strange. During a press event earlier this month, Disney showed footage that revealed a vibrant pink-hued world full of faceless, boneless creatures that still managed to be adorable.

This sneak peek, however, was only a glimpse of what we'll see of this strange land. I had the chance to talk with "Strange World" director Don Hall as well as co-director/writer Qui Nguyen about the movie during that press event. During that conversation,...

The upcoming Disney animated movie "Strange World" contains a lot of surprises, only some of which we've seen in the feature's initial trailer. The movie follows the Clade family as they find themselves thrown into a mysterious land beneath their hometown that they knew nothing about. Things there are ... different there, to say the least, and the family has to try to stay alive (and save the world) while also dealing with the more mundane but very relatable issue of challenging family relationships. It looks, in short, like a very expansive, very heartwarming, and very fun film.

During a press day for the film, I had the chance to sit down with "Strange World" director Don Hall, co-director and writer Qui Nguyen, and producer Roy Conli about the movie. Read on for that discussion, which includes their inspirations for making the strange places we see in "Strange World" so strange,...

Who doesn’t love a good adventure? Frankly, after a couple of unusual years, being in a room with other journalists in-person and such at the same time feels like one. Yet something was happening at Disney Animation in Burbank, and I was thrilled to be a part of it. In the upcoming animated feature film Strange World (which just released a brand-new trailer), Disney hopes to create another magical adventure for all ages. And with an impressive cast, and Don Hall and his co-director/writer Qui Nguyen (co-writer on Raya and the Last Dragon), they had something to celebrate. Thus, I recently had the opportunity to check out footage from the upcoming film. And it was a treat.

Before we jumped into the presentation, we were given a brief synopsis from Mr. Hall, Mr. Nguyen, and producer Roy Conli. The story revolves around a family of explorers. They include...

The Disney feature "Strange World" is still a couple of months away from its premiere, and while we've gotten a fun trailer teasing how the Clade family finds themselves on an airship trip that takes them some place completely and entirely strange, we don't know much about the film.

However, Disney Animation had a press event last week that pulled back the curtain a bit more on the movie, which director Don Hall has said is partly inspired by the pulp magazines he read as a kid. I attended this event for /Film, and during the presentation that Hall and co-director and writer Qui Nguyen gave, we got to see footage from the feature, which has the Clades going on a "Journey to the Center of the Earth"-style adventure into the core of the planet below their town of Avalonia.

Disney showed at least one of the sequences I saw during D23 as well,...

Kelly Marie Tran, Significant Productions, and Madica Productions aren’t going to take the recent attacks on sexual assault survivors lying down. Instead, they aim to make a powerful film starring Tran as the real-life activist Amanda Nguyen, founder and CEO of civil rights organization Rise. In addition to her starring role, Tran is producing the project chronicling Nguyen’s journey in writing and passing the Survivors’ Bill of Rights while galvanizing a global community of survivors and allies.

Nina Yang Bongiovi, Jeff Tahler, and Amanda Nguyen produce alongside Tran and are looking for Cannes Short Film Palme d’Or Winner Tang Yi to write and direct.

According to today’s press release about the untitled project, this endeavor follows the passage of a first-of-its-kind United Nations resolution focused solely on access to justice for sexual violence survivors, which was introduced by Sierra Leone and championed by Rise. The resolution agreed to by the U.

Click here to read the full article.

Kelly Marie Tran is developing a biopic about one of her close friends, the civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, alongside Significant Productions and Madica Productions.

The Star Wars and Raya and the Last Dragon actor is attached to star as Nguyen in a feature that would depict her transformation from a survivor of college sexual assault to an activist for survivors’ rights, including penning a Survivors’ Bill of Rights (which inspired the federal law passed in 2016) and founding the civil rights accelerator Rise. Earlier this month, Nguyen was present at the United Nations session where the general assembly adopted a resolution to address justice for sexual violence survivors, which Rise helped to champion.

“Over the years, Amanda’s activism has changed the lives of billions, as she continues to make our world safer for sexual assault survivors everywhere,” Tran said in a statement.

Click here to read the full article.

Agathe Rousselle, the break-out star from the Cannes Palme d’Or winner Titane, will lead the sci-fi drama Low Orbit from producer Uri Singer, who was behind the Netflix adaptation of Don DeLillo’s White Noise.

Low Orbit takes place on a failed colony on another planet, where a romance grows between a female shuttle pilot and the wife of a cryogenically frozen engineer that the pilot has been ordered to transport off planet. The project has been described as Moon meets In the Mood for Love.

Nguyen-Anh Nguyen, the Vietnamese-Canadian director behind popular fantasy and sci-fi shorts The Akira Project and Hyperlight, will direct the project. Adam Bradley co-wrote the scrip with Nguyen.

Singer most recently debuted the Noah Baumbach-directed White Noise at the Venice Film Festival. The Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig-starrer is set to open the New York Film Festival.

Welcome to the eighth installment of our new column 100 Word Hits, in association with comics retailer The Unreality Store, in which Matthew De Monti brings us short, sharp reviews of the latest books to hit comic stores over the past month or so!

The Silver Coin #12 Written by Stephanie Phillips | Art by Michael Walsh

February 1945 and the American Army are pushing through the Italian Alps clearing out some last vestiges of fanatical Nazi opposition. Pleading for mercy a dying German tries to trade a mysterious silver coin for his life. Private Hart the recipient of the coin wishes that he can overcome his fear of killing and be like his fellow GI’s who have no compunction in taking lives.

But as we know the coin has a way twisting its’ holders wishes and before long Hart is killing with impunity and neither Germans or his fellow Americans are safe from the coin’s curse!

Walt Disney Studios previewed its upcoming animated offering Strange World at D23 Expo today.

The film includes characters voiced by Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid, Jabouki Young-White and Lucy Liu, all of whom were on hand. It’s about a legendary family of explorers whose differences threaten to scuttle their latest crucial adventure. The film is directed by Don Hall and written by Raya and the Last Dragon’s Qui Nguyen.

Hall called the film a “story of family [and] the strong desire to leave them a better world.” The director described the driving inspiration behind the film as “our kids.”

Nguyen said the story involves a hidden world, unique creatures and “environments full if surprises and dangers.”

Strange World marks Gyllenhaal’s first time in Disney animated movie. He plays a character called Searcher.

“Being here is so cool and to share this trailer for the first time,” he said. “I...

For 19 seasons, the gifted contestants on Bravo’s Emmy-winning “Top Chef” have been thrown into the reality competition show deep end with the show’s signature Quickfire Challenge. While the Quickfire Challenge is not as diabolical as, say, “Chopped’s” baskets, it’s fast-moving, and constructed around themes or local ingredients or even cooking utensils (or lack of).

What usually emerges are memorable bites. But who comes up with the challenges? The “Top Chef” producers — all as passionate about food and storytelling through the culinary arts as the cheftestants — spill the beans.

“When coming up with Quickfire Challenges, I first start off with, ‘What’s a fun fact about our host city? Is it known for ramen? Was the fajita invented here? Does it have the largest Nigerian population? Is their local hero a sports star?’” says Thi Nguyen. “From there, I dig deeper into the backstory to develop a challenge around it.

The man who admittedly gunned down beloved rapper Nipsey Hussle in a caught-on-video attack three years ago rested his strikingly short defense in less than three hours at his first-degree murder trial Wednesday — a day after he allegedly was jumped and beaten unconscious by fellow inmates in county jail.

Eric Holder Jr. sat at the defense table with an obviously swollen left eye and three staples in his head as prosecutors showed harrowing autopsy photos before resting their case by 10:30 a.m. and handing the reins to Holder’s public defender,...