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Photo: Benjamin Ayres, Kimberley Sustad

Credit: ©2024 Hallmark Media/Photographer: Allister Foster

Hallmark fans can look forward to lots of laughs and plenty of cuteness in The Santa Class, premiering as part of the 2023 Countdown to Christmas programming event.

Starring Kimberley Sustad as the owner of a struggling Santa School, and Benjamin Ayres who plays her instructor, Dan, who helps an amnesia-stricken Santa Claus.

Read on to find out more about the plot of the movie and its cast and see some gorgeous Santa-filled images taken on the film set.

The Santa Class – a rom-com on Hallmark Channel Photo: Ryan Beil, Benjamin Ayres, Gary Jones, Trevor Lerner, Tom Pickett, Kimberley Sustad, Carmel Amit, Graeme McComb Credit: ©2024 Hallmark Media/Photographer: Allister Foster

TV Insider has revealed the plot of the new Christmas rom-com, The Santa Class, coming to your small screen soon. In the movie, Kimberley Sustad and Benjamin Ayres are trying to save Christmas.

Exclusive: Dan Fogler (The Offer) has been set as a series regular in the USA Network’s new drama series The Rainmaker, based on the John Grisham novel of the same name.

From showrunner and executive producer Michael Seitzman, the Lionsgate and Blumhouse series follows Rudy Baylor (Milo Callaghan) who, fresh out of law school, goes head-to-head with courtroom lion Leo Drummond (John Slattery) and his law school girlfriend Sarah Plankmore (Madison Iseman). Rudy, along with his boss (Lana Parrilla) and her disheveled paralegal, uncover two connected conspiracies surrounding the mysterious death of their client’s son.

Fogler will play Melvin Pritcher, a nurse with an explosive secret at the heart of a vast conspiracy.

The previously announced cast also includes P.J. Byrne in the role of Deck Shifflet, a no-filter, shoot-from-the-hip law school grad who failed the bar seven times. He now operates as an unsentimental “paralawyer” at J.

Emile Hirsch has had one of the more interesting careers of the many talented heartthrobs who arose at the turn of the millennium, and he's outlasted most of them. It's been two decades since his very good teen sex comedy, The Girl Next Door, and about 15 years since he won vast acclaim for Into the Wild, which kicked off an run of big films with great directors — Milk (Gus Vant Sant), Speed Racer (the Wachowski sisters), Taking Woodstock (Ang Lee), Killer Joe (William Friedkin), Savages (Oliver Stone), and Prince Avalanche (David Gordon Green) among them.

These days, four or five films are released with Emile Hirsch every single year; in fact, two of them came out on the same day: Prey and State of Consciousness. "We shot it almost three years ago. So I'm prolific, but this one did kind of get bottlenecked with another release," explained Hirsch about State of Consciousness.

Exclusive: Fiona Shaw (Andor), Katherine Waterston (Inherent Vice) and Chaske Spencer (The English) have entered production in NYC on Park Avenue, a new indie drama from Sundance alum Gaby Dellal (On a Clear Day), who directs from her script written with Tina Alexis Allen.

A production of Rimsky Productions and Washington Square Films, Park Avenue follows a mother and daughter who, over a fraught six weeks, reveal secrets, unravel lies and ultimately lay bare the ties that bind. Paralyzed by her life wrangling cattle in Alberta, Canada, Charlotte (Waterston) jumps into her Ford Bronco, flees her over-controlling husband, and lands back in her childhood Park Avenue apartment where she takes refuge with her mother Kit (Shaw). Rediscovering the boy she loved, now her grown doorman Anders (Spencer), and the life she left at 18, the mother and daughter explore shared history, unshared truths and find a way to face both love and loss.

Los Angeles, March 17 (Ians) Michael Zegen, James Madio, and Scott Cohen will be starring in ‘The Penguin’ series in recurring roles.

The three join a cast that includes series lead Colin Farrell, who will reprise the role of Oswald ‘The Penguin’, Cobblepot from ‘The Batman’, as well as Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz, Michael Kelly, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Deirdre O’Connell, and Clancy Brown, reports Variety.

According to sources Zegen is set to play Alberto Falcone.

Alberto is the son of Gotham City crime boss Carmine Falcone, who was played by John Turturro in ‘The Batman’, and the brother of Sofia Falcone, who will be played by Milioti in ‘The Penguin’.

In the comics, Alberto takes credit for being the serial killer known as The Holiday Killer, who targets Gotham gangsters on a holiday each month.

Zegen is best known for his role in the hit Amazon series ‘The Marvelous Mrs Maisel’, which...

“The Penguin” series at HBO Max has added Michael Zegen, James Madio, and Scott Cohen to its cast in recurring roles, Variety has learned exclusively.

The three join a cast that includes series lead Colin Farrell, who will reprise the role of Oswald “The Penguin” Cobblepot from “The Batman, as well as Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz, Michael Kelly, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Deirdre O’Connell, and Clancy Brown.

HBO Max is not releasing character details for three new additions, but sources say that Zegen is set to play Alberto Falcone.

Alberto is the son of Gotham City crime boss Carmine Falcone, who was played by John Turturro in “The Batman,” and the brother of Sofia Falcone, who will be played by Milioti in “The Penguin.” In the comics, Alberto takes credit for being the serial killer known as The Holiday Killer, who targets Gotham gangsters on a holiday each month.

Zegen is best...

Half a century ago Hollywood was frantically trying to figure out the newly-dominant “youth market.” Since some of that market had recently found Jesus, there was a brief spate of related films: Zefferelli’s hippie-fied St. Francis biopic “Brother Sun, Sister Moon,” adapted stage musicals “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Godspell,” the Billy Graham-produced “A Time to Run” chief among them. But as the “Jesus Movement” got absorbed into more mainstream institutions, the brief vogue flickered out.

For a moment there, however, counterculture and Christ had a groovy thing going on, one that promised both salvation for those who’d gone overboard on sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll, as well as a healthy shakeup of churches that had lost touch with younger generations. Dramatizing that moment is “Jesus Revolution,” an engaging, upbeat new effort from co-directors Jon Erwin (“I Can Only Imagine”) and Brent McCorkle (“Unconditional”), adapted from Greg Laurie’s memoir.

Jonathan Groff is an American actor, singer, and producer best known for his roles on stage, screen, and television. He has starred on Broadway in Hamilton and Spring Awakening, as well as in the HBO series Looking and Netflix’s Mindhunter. He is also the voice of Kristoff in Disney’s Frozen films and has been featured in several other films such as The Normal Heart, Boss Baby 2: Family Business, and Trolls World Tour.

Jonathan Groff. Depositphotos

Groff began his career performing off-Broadway productions before transitioning to Broadway shows such as In My Life: A Musical Theatre Tribute to the Beatles (2005), Hair (2009) and Spring Awakening (2015). He won a Tony Award nomination for his performance as King George III in Hamilton (2016). After appearing on stage with Lea Michele in Spring Awakening (2015) he starred opposite her again in Fox’s Glee (2009-15). Later he went on to portray FBI Agent Holden...

Ang Lee has been making movies for over three decades. That is an impressive career. That the majority of those films are good (and some are amazing) puts him on a whole other level. Born in Taiwan, the Republic of China, and educated in the United States, Lee has made extremely Chinese films and extremely American films, as well as some that mix the two cultures — plus the occasional excursion to the United Kingdom or India for a literary adaptation. But wherever his films take place, and no matter who stars in them, Ang Lee is always interested in what's under the surface of his characters — in people's emotional lives, their feelings for others, and what they keep hidden from the world.

Family has been an omnipresent theme in Lee's work since he kicked off his career with three movies in a row about dads. Sexuality also comes up a...

Exclusive: There’s going to be a Big Bang Theory reunion on Fox’s Call me Kat. Mayim Bialik will reunite with Kevin Sussman in episode 304 airing October 20.

Sussman will guest star as Zac, the owner of a local board game bar where Max and Carter find themselves checking out the competition.

Season 3 of Call Me Kat, which premieres on September 29, picks up as Kat (Bialik) decides to take some time off to reset following a few years of hardcore dedication to purchasing and running her cat café. She returns following a lengthy trip across the world feeling refreshed and ready to focus on what she wants more, which includes a journey to motherhood.

While she was away, Randi (Kyla Pratt) and Phil (Leslie Jordan) kept the café afloat and decided to make a few changes. Randi is still dating Carter (Julian Gant), who runs the local watering hole next door,...

Exclusive: Fantastic Beasts franchise star Katherine Waterston is boarding the drama thriller Black Flies opposite 2x Oscar winner Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan.

Deadline first told you about the project, directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire, when Open Road Films landed U.S. rights to the pic at EFM 2021.

Based on the novel by Shannon Burke, Black Flies follows the paramedics who save our lives—and the toll it inflicts on theirs. It is an immersive view of life on the streets and one medic’s struggle to maintain his desire to help despite his growing fear that nothing he can do will make a difference. It is the story of lives that hang in the balance and the choices of two men caught in the middle. Ollie Cross (Sheridan) is ready to do good. In preparation for his dream of medical school, he hits the streets driving an ambulance alongside Rutkovsky...

Although America has the largest film industry, and the most successful in terms of revenue, the Chinese film industry has created a string of releases that have fared well overseas in recent years. A surge of Chinese films, including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero and Kung Fu Hustle, have received rave reviews and rated high at the box office in the West as well as in their native country. Directors such as Zhang Yimou and Ang Lee and actresses Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi have also gone on to become big names.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Ang Lee’s 2000 film was the first foreign language film to take over $100million in the US and holds the record for the most Oscar nominations for a foreign film. Nominated for ten awards, it took home four on the night, including Best Foreign Film. It also won dozens of awards in its home country,...

Sondra James, a character actor who has appeared in film, TV and onstage over the past four decades with the likes of Ben Affleck, Robert De Niro, Christopher Lloyd, Mike Birbiglia and Joaquin Phoenix in his Oscar-winning role in 2019’s Joker, died September 12 in her native New York City after a five-month battle with lung cancer. She was 82.

The news was confirmed Monday by her manager Carolyn Anthony of Anthony & Associates Ltd.

James, made her feature film debut in Woody Allen’s 1995 pic Mighty Aphrodite, setting off a string of big-screen acting and voice credits that included Alfie, Taking Woodstock, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, The Dictator, Robots, Don’t Think Twice, Spider-Man: Homecoming, The Climb and as Dr. Sally in Todd Phillips’ Joker.

Her last film credit is a role in the George Clooney-directed The Tender Bar, starring Affleck and Lloyd and due out next year.

On TV, James’ credits included Law & Order,...

Exclusive: Katherine Waterston is boarding Damien Chazelle’s Paramount movie Babylon which is set in late 1920s Hollywood, we can tell you first.

All of the role descriptions and the plotline are being kept under wraps in the Oscar winning filmmaker’s next ensemble movie. What we know is that it’s an R-rated drama, set in the shifting moment in Hollywood when the industry turned from silent film to talkies.

Waterston joins the previously announced cast of Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt, Diego Calva, Jovan Adepo, and Li Jun Li. Chazelle in addition to directing, wrote the script. Babylon hits theaters on Christmas Day 2022 in a limited release with a wide break on Jan. 6, 2023.

Olivia Hamilton, Matt Plouffe, and Marc Platt are producing. Tobey Maguire, Helen Estabrook and Adam Siegel are EPs.

Waterston recently starred in Bleecker Street’s period romance The World to Come opposite Casey Affleck and Vanessa Kirby,...

Bafta’s highest accolade will be presented to the director of ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ and ‘Brokeback Mountain’.

Taiwanese director Ang Lee is to be honoured with a Bafta Fellowship at the Bafta Film Awards on Sunday (April 11).

Lee is a four-time Bafta award-winner for Sense And Sensibility, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain. He also won best director at the Oscars for Brokeback Mountain and Life Of Pi.

The Fellowship is Bafta’s highest accolade, awarded in recognition of an outstanding and exceptional contribution to film, and has previously been given to Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick,...

Actor, director and producer Clark Middleton, who appeared in “Kill Bill Vol. 2,” “The Blacklist” and “Snowpiercer,” died Sunday as a result of West Nile Virus, his wife Elissa confirmed. He was 63.

“With heavy hearts we announce the passing of a life eminently worthy of celebration: Clark Tinsley Middleton, 63 – beloved actor, writer, director, teacher, hero, husband, beacon, friend,” Elissa wrote. “Clark transitioned on October 4th as a result of West Nile Virus, for which there is no known cure. Clark was a beautiful soul who spent a lifetime defying limits and advocating for people with disabilities.”

On television, Middleton appeared in recurring roles on “Law & Order,” “Twin Peaks” and, most recently, “The Blacklist,” where he played the irritable Dmv boss Glen Carter. On the 2017 Showtime revival of David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks,” he played Charlie, the sleepy husband of Audrey (Sherilyn Fenn). He told Indiewire in 2017 he didn’t...

The Enemy Within alumna Kelli Garner has signed with More/Medavoy for management.

Garner most recently starred as Kate Ryan on NBC’s The Enemy Within opposite Jennifer Carpenter and Morris Chestnut. She previously played Marilyn Monroe opposite Susan Sarandon in the Lifetime event series The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe.

Garner’s most notable film performances include Craig Gillespie’s Lars and the Real Girl, Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock, and Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator. On the television side, Garner co-starred opposite Christina Ricci in ABC’s Pan Am.

Garner is also represented by The Gersh Agency and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush & Kaller.

Does the world really need another movie about Woodstock? There are fewer of them than you might imagine, but the two that most readily spring to mind feel like a closed parenthetical: Michael Wadleigh released his definitive 1970 concert documentary when the music was still echoing across the fields of upstate New York, and Ang Lee’s 2009 “Taking Woodstock” suggested we should have left it at that.

Barak Goodman (“Oklahoma City”) and co-director Jamila Ephron (“Far from the Tree”) must have disagreed. Made in conjunction with PBS, timed for the 50th anniversary, and set for a proper theatrical run before airing on the television channel later this year, their “Woodstock: Three Days that Defined a Generation” revisits the epochal music festival as if it had never been done before — as if the Aquarian Exposition isn’t the only rock concert in American history that gets its own page in high school textbooks.

"We were looking for other people that felt the same way we did." PBS Distribution has unveiled an official trailer for a new documentary about the greatest concert ever - Woodstock. Titled Woodstock: Three Days That Defined a Generation, the feature-length doc film is premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival first, then will play in select theaters before airing on TV through PBS. In August of 1969, 500,000 people gathered at a farm in upstate New York. What happened there was far more than just a concert. Woodstock tells the story of a legendary event that defined a generation through the voices of those who were there. While there have been docs about Woodstock before as well as feature films (like Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock), this new doc focuses on the people. "From concert goers to security guards to performers to local residents — Woodstock expands our understanding of the ...

Over the past decade, actress Katherine Waterston has built up a solid filmography of work that had made her one of the most eclectic and reliable performers around. After years of theater work and taking meaty supporting roles in such films as Michael Clayton (her first film), Taking Woodstock, Robot & Frank (as well as […]

The post ‘State Like Sleep’ Star Katherine Waterston on Balancing Indies and Blockbusters [Interview] appeared first on /Film.

Mamie Gummer, Madeline Brewer, Violet McGraw and Brian Cox have joined Rupert Friend in the cast of horror-thriller “Separation,” with production under way in New York.

William Brent Bell is directing from a script by Nick Amadeus and Joshua Braun. Bell is also producing with Yale Productions’ Jordan Yale Levine, Jordan Beckerman, Russ Posternak and Jesse Korman, and RainMaker’s Clay Pecorin and Russell Geyser. Executive producers are Seth Posternak and Dennis Rice. Yale Productions’ Jon Keeyes serves as a co-producer.

“Separation” explores the horrifying consequences of divorce with Friend and Gummer, portraying a newly separated couple, battling for custody of their 7-year-old daughter Jenny (played by McGraw). Brewer portrays the couple’s longtime nanny with Cox playing the overbearing father of Gummer’s character.

Gummer’ credits include Steven Soderbergh’s “Side Effects,” Ang Lee’s “Taking Woodstock” and Jonathan Demme’s “Ricki and The Flash.” Brewer stars in “The...

Paul Auster on the beginning of ending up directing Lulu On The Bridge: "My good friend Wim Wenders, who gets a credit here, he said he had been working with Juliette Binoche, talking for years about a project to do Lulu, somehow." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Paul Auster's Lulu On The Bridge, shot by Alik Sakharov (The Sopranos), edited by Tim Squyres, and costumes by Adelle Lutz, stars Harvey Keitel and Mira Sorvino with Willem Dafoe, Gina Gershon, Mandy Patinkin, Vanessa Redgrave, Richard Edson, Don Byron, Victor Argo, Kevin Corrigan, Sophie Auster (Paul and Siri Hustvedt's daughter), and has scene stealing cameos by Lou Reed and David Byrne.

Lulu On The Bridge and The Inner Life Of Martin Frost in Paul Auster x 2

At Metrograph's screening of a 35mm print on loan from MoMA, attended by Tim Squyres, who is also Ang Lee's incredibly longtime editor, Paul Auster...

Ang Lee celebrates his 64th birthday on October 23, 2018. The Oscar-winning filmmaker has worked in a variety of genres and styles to explore the lives of people around the globe. In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at 12 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in Taiwan in 1954, Lee’s interest in film brought him to NYU’s graduate program, where he worked as a crew member on classmate Spike Lee‘s thesis project, “Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads.” He directed his first feature, “Pushing Hands” (1991) at the age of 37.

Lee followed up his debut with back-to-back international successes, each one scoring Oscar nominations as Best Foreign Language Film: “The Wedding Banquet” (1993) and “Eat Drink Man Woman” (1994). In both films, the director explored the kinds of complex familial relationships that would animate many of his stories.

He was then drafted by Hollywood to...

Jonathan Groff (“Mindhunter”) and Maggie Gyllenhaal (“The Deuce”) sat down for a chat during Variety‘s “Actors on Actors,” presented by Shutterstock. For more “Actors on Actors,” click here.

Jonathan Groff: In the credits, one of the things that jumped out to me is it says, “Producer: Maggie Gyllenhaal.” As an actor, is that something you always wanted to do?

Maggie Gyllenhaal: It’s something I want to do very much. Some of that was born out of making “The Deuce” and playing Candy because she’s a filmmaker, but she’s also a producer. I had never signed on to a project where I didn’t have the script. I was being asked to play a sex worker, and I was like, “I don’t know how to commit to this without some guarantee that I’m going to be part of the conversation,” which has become more and...

On Friday morning, with little fanfare, A24 announced that David Robert Mitchell’s sprawling film noir, “Under the Silver Lake,” would no longer be released June 22. Instead, it’s been pushed to December 7. Nor was the company interested in discussing the six-month time shift. A24 spokeswoman Nicolette Aizenberg only responded to our query with a cryptic email: “Indeed we moved the date.”

However, in a company known for smart and radical moves, this appears to be another one. Here’s why.

1. Cool Cannes reception

Mitchell had plenty of reasons to be grateful to the festival for supporting his first two films, “The Myth of the American Sleepover” and “It Follows,” which both played Critics Week. Positive reaction for his debut gave Mitchell the confidence to quit his editing job and focus on getting “It Follows” made. The festival “helped to make that happen,” he told me at an American Pavilion panel at Cannes.

On Friday morning, with little fanfare, A24 announced that David Robert Mitchell’s sprawling film noir, “Under the Silver Lake,” would no longer be released June 22. Instead, it’s been pushed to December 7. Nor was the company interested in discussing the six-month time shift. A24 spokeswoman Nicolette Aizenberg only responded to our query with a cryptic email: “Indeed we moved the date.”

However, in a company known for smart and radical moves, this appears to be another one. Here’s why.

1. Cool Cannes reception

Mitchell had plenty of reasons to be grateful to the festival for supporting his first two films, “The Myth of the American Sleepover” and “It Follows,” which both played Critics Week. Positive reaction for his debut gave Mitchell the confidence to quit his editing job and focus on getting “It Follows” made. The festival “helped to make that happen,” he told me at an American Pavilion panel at Cannes.

on this day (August 28th) in showbiz-related history, things get sweaty and hot hot hot... time to rub lemons all over our bare bodies.

1980 The 37th annual Venice Film Festival kicks off. The Golden Lion that year will prove to be a tie (!) with Atlantic City, starring Susan Sarandon and her lemons, and Gloria  splitting the top prize. Atlantic City will go on to five Oscar nominations including Best Picture

1981 Kathleen Turner and William Hurt do filthy things to each other in the window smashingly erotic Body Heat brand new in theaters on this day.

1987 Dennis Quaid fingers Ellen Barkin in The Big Easy  new in theaters. The orgasm is so explosive it rockets both careers to the next level instanteously.

1998 54, legendarily butchered in the editing room, attempts to chart the bisexual opportunist antics of Ryan Phillipe in his twink god years.

2009 Taking Woodstock opens in theaters with Emile Hirsch...

Chicago – The dry, hangdog demeanor of comedian Demetri Martin is familiar to fans who have watched his Comedy Central show, “Important Things,” experienced his notable stand up routines and read his best-selling books. It seemed a natural to leap into film, so Martin has written, directed and portrays the title character in the new release, “Dean.”

Dean (Demetri Martin) is in a life funk, due to the death of his mother the year before, and the break-up of his engagement shortly thereafter. He plunges into his work as a cartoonist and illustrator, but he can’t shake the recent losses. His father Robert (Kevin Kline) is trying to reach out, but can’t seem to get through to him, until he tells Dean that he is selling the family home. This puts the title character into a tailspin, and even an escape to Los Angeles – and meeting a free spirit...

CBS Films has debuted the first trailer for the upcoming comedy Dean, which marks the directorial debut of comedian Demetri Martin, who also stars as the title character and wrote the screenplay. The film was the winner of the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival's Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature. CBS Films picked the film up after its world premiere, setting it for limited release on June 2.

Writer/Director/Comedian Demetri Martin stars alongside Academy Award winner Kevin Kline in this comedic and heartfelt tale about a father and son coming to terms with love, loss and everything in between. Dean (Demetri Martin) is an illustrator whose unwillingness to deal with the recent death of his mother means escaping his hometown of New York for an interview with an ad agency in Los Angeles. His retired engineer dad Robert (Kevin Kline) takes a more regimented approach to grief, including putting the family home up for sale.

Katherine Waterston isn’t a believer in big breaks. The “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” star has been working steadily on stage and screen since the early aughts, but had long ago given up the idea that she was suddenly going to become some big star.

“I basically never believed that I was a commercial actor, Waterston recently told IndieWire. “Just because of the outcome of many auditions over time. No one hired me.”

That’s changed, and with the J.K. Rowling-penned series now set to span a whopping five films (all the better to keep still-rabid “Harry Potter” fans happy), Waterston seems to have the kind of job security that any actor would kill to get.

Read More: ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ Review: The ‘Harry Potter’ Prequel Is One of the Best Blockbusters of the Year

In the film, she plays Porpentina “Tina” Goldstein,...

MaryAnn’s quick take…

Forget about magical creatures: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them could use some help finding itself, and in figuring out who its protagonist is. I’m “biast” (pro): love the Harry Potter saga, love most of the movies

I’m “biast” (con): not a fan of Eddie Redmayne

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

Forget about magical creatures: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them could use some help finding itself. I can’t figure out what this movie is about. Worse, I don’t think director David Yates or screenwriter J.K Rowling even know what their movie is about. It’s barely even about fantastic beasts and where to find them, except to the degree that wizard naturalist Newt Scamander accidentally lets a few escape from his mobile collection lab–research library–menagerie in 1926 New York City and...

Led by the Disney/Marvel’s “Doctor Strange” and “Trolls” (20th Century Fox/DreamWorks Animation), the Top 10 box office continues to be strong. And with three new wide releases, totals could be 20 percent over last year.

Those new films — “Arrival” (Paramount), “Almost Christmas” (Universal), and “Shut In” (EuropaCorp) — won’t top the second-week blockbusters. Even if “Doctor Strange” and “Trolls” each drop 50 percent, they’d gross $42 million and $23 million, respectively. None of the new titles are likely to cross $20 million, though “Arrival” and “Almost Christmas” could come close.

This weekend gets an added boost from Veteran’s Day on Friday, a Federal holiday that gives many school kids the day off. That will boost all grosses, but particularly “Trolls” and also the already well-received “Doctor Strange.”

See More‘Arrival’ Critical Roundup: Reviews Say Amy Adams is Out Of This World in Sci-Fi Drama

The release of Denis Villeneuve’s “Arrival...

“I knew for this particular work to function as a movie, it had to have a distinctive style,” says former Focus Features chief James Schamus about his feature directorial debut Indignation, “I didn’t want to box my actors into a particular, exact approach that would not let them breath.” After penning a number of Ang Lee movies such as Taking Woodstock, The Hulk; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Lust, Caution, Schamus got behind the camera with an adaptation of Philip…...

You’ve never seen such a compelling, entertaining movie about a genius jerk. As smart and as sleek as a Macbook Pro, and a compulsory bit of modern history. I’m “biast” (pro): love the cast and Danny Boyle; huge Mac devotee

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

I have not read the source material

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

Steve Jobs: Genius. Visionary. Asshole. Steve Jobs is not a traditional biography of the Apple founder and, after it went off the rails in the late 1980s and early 90s, its returning hero and savior. We don’t peek in on his childhood, or on the battle with pancreatic cancer that he eventually lost. This is much narrower, the tale of how one man revolutionized the computer industry and as a result, you know, changed the world. Jobs wasn’t an engineer or a...

An achingly perfect evocation of New York’s East Village in the 1980s and an amazing cast cannot make this tale of adolescent anxiety catch fire. I’m “biast” (pro): love the cast

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

I have not read the source material

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

Adolescent anxiety playing out against the tumultuous backdrop of the late 1980s in New York’s East Village? I’m there. Hell, I was there, as a student at Nyu at the very moment this tale is set, and I can attest that its evocation of the place and time is achingly perfect, from the unrenovated tenements to the funky cafes to the scene at punk club Cbgb to the dangerous excitement in the air. Alas that the story of young Jude (Asa Butterfield: X+Y), who has decamped from boring Vermont to live with his drug-dealer dad,...

You wouldn’t think a show like “Supernatural” would have anything in common with “Grey’s Anatomy” or “Weeds”. After all, they’re wildly different genres on different networks. Each of these shows did do one thing the same. Every single one of them killed a character played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

He’s the dad they love to kill, or, at least that’s what happened to both John Winchester and Judah Botwin. Even as a single guy with a thing for Scrabble, he didn’t fare so well, just ask Denny Duquette. Oh, wait. You can’t. They killed him, too. He became, for all intents and purposes, the best and most memorable Red Shirt on TV.

Foolishly, I thought maybe movies would make a difference. “Watchmen” and “Jonah Hex” both proved me wrong. He did stay alive through “Peace, Love, and Misunderstanding”, “Taking Woodstock,” “The Losers,” “P.S. I Love You...

Inherent Vice is a dreamy, hazy film that finds Larry “Doc” Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) playing private eye, trying fruitlessly to get to the bottom of a situation that vaguely surrounds his ex-girlfriend Shasta Fay Hepworth (Katherine Waterstson). As the story unfolds, layers upon layers are revealed, while Shasta remains one of the only constants that doc can hold onto, even if he’s never quite sure what he has in his hands.

Katherine is the daughter of the Oscar-nominated Sam Waterston, and with her performance as Shasta may well have garnered her own awards attention thanks to this bold and provocative performance. At 34 she’s a veteran of both big and small screen, appearing in a series of independent films such as Night Moves or Taking Woodstock. Inherent Vice is her breakthrough, and she was open and engaging when we spoke during her recent visit to Toronto.

Patton Oswalt, Amy Poehler, Sarah Silverman, Adrian Grenier, and Werner Herzog are among the more than 80 actors, directors, and academic and civic leaders who are collaborating on the digital series We the Economy: 20 Short Films You Can't Afford to Miss. Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Productions and Morgan Spurlock’s Cinelan will produce the series of informative and entertaining films that tackle serious economic issues. “At its core, the vision of this project is to fuse artistry and storytelling with economic expertise to engage the public in a truly informed dialogue about the U.S. economy," says Carole Tomko, general...

Tom Rothman’s TriStar Productions and Film4 announced today that the three-time Oscar-winner Ang Lee has chosen an adaptation of Ben Fountain’s acclaimed novel Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk as his next film, his first since winning the Academy Award for directing the groundbreaking Life of Pi.

The film will be produced by Lee, Ink Factory’s Stephen Cornwell, Rhodri Thomas and Simon Cornwell and by Film4, who originally optioned the book. Simon Beaufoy wrote the script. TriStar has been developing the project with Film4 and Ink Factory since opening its doors at the end of last year. Tessa Ross, who oversaw Film and Drama for Film4 until recently being named to run the UK’s National Theatre, was instrumental on behalf of that studio.

Making the movie for TriStar returns Lee to the Sony Pictures umbrella, where he enjoyed great success with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Sense and Sensibility.

A new Inherent Vice image has landed online from writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson’s upcoming Thomas Pynchon adaptation, but instead of offering another look at Joaquin Phoenix’s pothead detective or Josh Brolin’s straight-laced cop, we actually get our first look at the female lead, played by Katherine Waterston. The actress—who is the daughter of Law & Order vet Sam Waterston—has had supporting roles in things like Boardwalk Empire and Taking Woodstock, but Inherent Vice marks her highest profile role to date as she plays the “free-spirited, sensual ex-girlfriend who wakes the mutton-chopped private investigator Doc Sportello (Phoenix) from his stoner haze.” As the female lead of a Paul Thomas Anderson film, Waterston will surely get some meaty scenes to chew through on screen, and this image is a simple tease of what could be a breakout role for the actress. Hit the jump to check out the new Inherent Vice image.

David Heyman produced eight movies about the second-most-famous Christ figure in history, Harry Potter. Now, he’s making a movie about Christ himself.

The movie will be based on the bestseller Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by historian Reza Aslan. Aslan’s book became the subject of controversy last summer when Fox News anchor Lauren Green questioned Aslan’s authority, as a Muslim, to write a book abut Jesus.

Former Focus Features CEO James Schamus will be adapting the book into a screenplay. Busy with his production company (he left last October), Schamus hasn’t had...

I’ll say this for Dan Fogler’s “Don Peyote”—its title might be the finest play on “Quixote” in cinema history. (Sorry, 2007’s “Donkey Xote.”) Unfortunately, a pun-tastic title does not guarantee a winning film, as the makers of “R.I.P.D.” can attest. As star, co-writer, and co-director of “Don Peyote,” Fogler deserves credit for the sheer ambition involved in this oddball story of a stoner’s awakening. The likable actor who took home a Tony for Broadway’s “25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” and has starred in a strange mix of comedies that includes everything from “Balls of Fury” to “Taking Woodstock” also called in a shockingly eclectic bunch for cameo roles: Anne Hathaway, Josh Duhamel, Topher Grace, Jay Baruchel, Wallace Shawn, Annabella Sciorra and Abel Ferrara (huh?!). But the result is an amateurish mess without a single laugh. Not. One. Laugh. That is no exaggeration.

One of the pleasures of working for TheBacklot is watching as young out performers blossom, and then following the trajectory as their stars ascend. That’s certainly the case with Jonathan Groff.

We first got to know him with his Tony-nominated performance in Broadway’s Spring Awakening, and we’ve been there as he’s moved on to TV roles in Glee, Boss, and Looking (which will return next year), movies (Taking Woodstock, C.O.G. and the megasmash Frozen), and he makes regular returns to the stage.

Today is his 29th birthday, and while we await his next big role, in HBO’s The Normal Heart, let’s take a pictorial look at this favorite of TheBacklot Hot 100.

The post Birthday Gallery: Jonathan Groff Turns 29 appeared first on thebacklot.com.

Chicago – 2013 was another great year for Demetri Martin. The dry comedian released a new book, “Point Your Face at This” and co-starred in a well received independent film, “In a World…” Martin made an appearance in Chicago at the Barnes & Noble DePaul Center Loop store in April, and HollywoodChicago.com got the Exclusive Portrait.

Demetri Martin is a well-known comedian, writer and performer. Combining a wry and ironic post modern sense of humor, Martin has applied his skill to TV on “The Daily Show” and his own “Important Things with Demetri Martin,” and films – he had the featured role in “Taking Woodstock,” directed by Ang Lee. “Point Your Face at This” is his second book.

Demetri Martin at the DePaul Center Barnes & Noble in Chicago, April of 2013

Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

“Point Your Face at This” by Demetri Martin is available at Barnes & Noble or wherever books are sold.

Acknowledges the powerful fraternity of soldiers without being jingoistic, and depicts the intensity and adrenaline of a battlefield without being pornographic. I’m “biast” (pro): have a sneaking affection for Mark Wahlberg

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

I have not read the source material

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

The spoiler is in the title: Navy Seal Marcus Luttrell was the only one to walk away — well, to get medevac’ed away — from a doomed 2005 mission in the mountains of Afghanistan to capture or kill Ahmad Shahd, a Taliban leader who’d targeted U.S. Marines and was an all-around villain. Now, writer-director Peter Berg, in a gripping bounceback from his deeply terrible Battleship, has adapted Luttrell’s story into one of the more realistic military movies ever (at least as far as someone who’s never been in the military can determine), one...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Jan. 21, 2013

Price: DVD $30.99, Blu-ray $35.99

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Voiceover coach Lake Bell gets her chance behind the mic in In a World…

Lake Bell (Black Rock) writes, directs and stars in the 2013 Sundance award-winning comedy In a World….

The talented Ms. Bell stars as Carol (Bell), an underachieving voice coach living in the shadow of her egotistical father Sam (Fred Melamed, A Serious Man), the undisputed king of the voice-over industry. When Sam kicks her out, Carol lands her first voice-over job with the help of charming sound engineer Louis (Demetri Martin, Taking Woodstock). As romantic sparks begin to fly, Carol finds herself facing a momentous decision when continued job offers put her in head to head competition with her dad, as well as his arrogant protégé (Ken Marino, Wanderlust).

The cast of the R-rated comedy also includes Rob Corddry (Warm Bodies), Michaela Watkins (TV...

The showstopping central musical number is a glorious anthem to female power and ability… and so, in fact, is the whole wonderful movie. Disney is finally getting it. I’m “biast” (pro): I’m starved for stories about girls and women

I’m “biast” (con): the trailer was a bit a goofy

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

Oh my goddess. Where did Frozen come from? It didn’t come from Hans Christian Andersen, that’s for certain; this bears so little resemblance to his “The Snow Queen” that I wonder why they even bothered with the connection. It did spring from the grand Disney tradition of full-on Broadway-style animated musicals, like we haven’t really seen since the 1990s. But unlike 2009’s throwback The Princess and the Frog, which felt like nothing more than a tired retread of the pursuit-of-romance motif that had long since been laid to rest,...

It’s really quite an amazing feat that Woody Allen has been able to remain as prolific a filmmaker as he has. Even at the age of 77, an age many would have been retired for several years upon reaching, he has never failed to deliver a film every year for over the past two decades. Granted, not all of them have been good. You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Whatever Works, and To Rome with Love didn’t exactly hit the mark of quality that we’ve come to expect from him, but he’s also delivered Match Point, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and the brilliant Midnight in Paris, one of the best films of his career.

Despite the fact that his latest film, Blue Jasmine, hasn’t even premiered yet, Allen has already recruited a cast for his next project, which we already know includes Colin Firth and Emma Stone as the leads.

The latest Untitled Woody Allen Project is gaining steam as his 2013 feature is almost in theaters and lord knows the 77-year-old writer/director isn't going to lay around and do nothing. We already knew Emma Stone and Colin Firth would star and, as with all Allen projects in their early stages, we don't have any plot details outside the fact it will shoot in the South of France (le Midi). However, today we get a lot more names to add to the cast. The Wrap reports Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook), Marcia Gay Harden, Hamish Linklater (Lola Versus), Simon McBurney (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Jeremy Shamos (Taking Woodstock) and Erica Leerhsen (Anything Else) have joined the cast. I'm seeing Allen's Blue Jasmine (7/26, Spc) in just under two weeks and can't wait. It's actually going to be a double feature for me that day... along with The Conjuring of all films.

Disney has released the first teaser trailer for November’s animated Frozen. The film features the usual impressive vocal cast and comes well pedigreed. Frozen (In 3D) Genre: Animated Comedy/Adventure Rating: Tbd U.S. Release Date: November 27, 2013 Voice Cast: Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff Directors: Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee Producer: Peter Del Vecho Screenplay by: Tba

Click here to view the embedded video.

Walt Disney Animation Studios, the studio behind Tangled and Wreck-It Ralph, presents Frozen, a stunning big-screen comedy adventure. Fearless optimist Anna (voice of Kristen Bell) sets off on an epic journey—teaming up with rugged mountain man Kristoff (voice of Jonathan Groff) and his loyal reindeer Sven—to find her sister Elsa (voice of Idina Menzel), whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom of Arendelle in eternal winter. Encountering Everest-like conditions, mystical trolls and a hilarious snowman named Olaf, Anna and Kristoff battle the elements...