While most of the film industry is fighting to get their content in front of as many eyes as possible, one filmmaker is taking the scarcity model to heart. Darren Aronofsky, whose last feature was the one-location drama The Whale, is putting the finishing touches on his next film, Postcard from Earth, which will only be available to view in one theater on Earth.

The venue in question is MSG Sphere, set to open in Las Vegas this fall and feature an immersive screening experience, along with concerts and residencies. Featuring a 16K LED screen and a beamforming spatial audio system––both the largest of their kind on the planet––the 160K square foot venue also features 4D experiences with haptic seats and environmental effects, and can house 10,000-20,000 people depending on the set-up.

As for Aronofsky’s film, it was shot by longtime collaborator Matthew Libatique as well as Andrew Shulkin, who operated the Big Sky camera. “The single-lens camera has a 316-megapixel, 3-inch x 3-inch HDR image sensor that Sphere Studios says can capture 18K x 18K images up to 120 frames per second,” THR notes. There’s no word yet on how long Aronofsky’s new film will run as it’s still in post-production, but showtimes are listed at 2.5 hours apart so we wouldn’t be surprised if it’s in the 1.5-hour range.

“I see SPHERE as a great opportunity to pluck people from the bling and thrum of the Vegas strip in all its human constructed madness and immerse them as fully as possible in the wonder, awe, and beauty of the natural world. Postcard from Earth is a sci-fi journey deep into our future as our descendants reflect on our shared home,” said Aronofsky. “At its best, cinema is an immersive medium that transports the audience out of their regular life, whether that’s into fantasy and escapism, another place and time, or another person’s subjective experience. The Sphere is an attempt to dial up that immersion.”

A rendering of the MSG Sphere.

He added, “Every day we’ve taken out the camera we’ve gotten better at getting the best possible shots. It’s a learning process because the technology is new. And it’s the same with post. Delivering a half-petabyte movie––that’s 500,000 gigabytes––that utilizes more than 160,000 speakers is mind boggling. But honestly, every film is always a learning experience. You are always in a process discovering the language of the film and unearthing the story using the tools you’ve got at hand. Here it’s about how to make the beauty and fragility of our planet feel as potent as possible. The tools might be a little different on this film, but the task is the same.”

“Postcard actually has narrative elements as well documentary ones,” Aronofsky concluded. “We designed it to be as effective as possible to communicate the message we wanted to deliver in an emotional way, so it’s less about genre than about the audience experience.”

Postcard from Earth opens on October 6 at Las Vegas’ The Sphere. Tickets are now on sale.

Check out a behind the scenes look below.

The post Darren Aronofsky’s Next Film Can Only Be Seen in One Theater first appeared on The Film Stage.

MUBI has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for next month, including the exclusive streaming premiere of Lars von Trier’s The Idiots in a new 4K restoration, Céline Devaux’s anti-romcom Everybody Loves Jeanne, and Tyler Taormina’s Happer’s Comet.

Additional selections include three films by Wong Kar Wai, a Robert Altman double feature, four works by Jacques Rivette, plus shorts by Mia Hansen-Løve and Yorgos Lanthimos.

Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

July 1 – Synecdoche, New York, directed by Charlie Kaufman
July 2 – 2046, directed by Wong Kar Wai | As Time Goes By: Three by Wong Kar Wai
July 3 – The Exiles, directed by Kent MacKenzie
July 4 – Ivansxtc, directed by Bernard Rose
July 5 – Un Pur Esprit, directed by Mia Hansen-Løve | Short Films Big Names
July 6 – Contemporary Color, directed by Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross | Turn It Up: Music on Film
July 7 – The Idiots, directed by Lars von Trier | Chaos Reigns: The Films of Lars von Trier
July 8 – Ashes of Time Redux, directed by Wong Kar Wai | As Time Goes By: Three by Wong Kar Wai
July 9 – California Split, directed by Robert Altman | Robert Altman: A Double Bill
July 10 – Kansas City, directed by Robert Altman | Robert Altman: A Double Bill
July 11 – Gang of Four, directed by Jacques Rivette | Jacques Rivette 
July 12 – Meet Doug, directed by Théo Jollet | Brief Encounters
July 13 – Lady of Burlesque, directed by William A. Wellman
July 14 – Buffalo ’66, directed by Vincent Gallo
July 15 – The Grandmaster, directed by Wong Kar Wai | As Time Goes By: Three by Wong Kar Wai
July 16 – ‘71,  directed by Yann Demange
July 17 – Keoma, directed by Enzo G. Castellari
July 18 – Happer’s Comet, directed by Tyler Taormina
July 19 – Il buco, directed by Michelangelo Frammartino
July 20 – La Belle Noiseuse, directed by Jacques Rivette | Jacques Rivette
July 21 – Twister, directed by Michael Almereyda
July 22 – Kinetta, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
July 23 – Pumping Iron, directed by George Butler, Robert Fiore | The Unusual Subjects
July 24 – Joan the Maid, Part 1: The Battles, directed by Jacques Rivette | Jacques Rivette 
July 25 – Joan the Maid, Part 2: The Prisons, directed by Jacques Rivette | Jacques Rivette
July 26 – Beats, directed by Brian Welsh | Turn It Up: Music on Film
July 27 – Everybody Loves Jeanne, directed by Céline Devaux | Debuts
July 28 – Sex and Lucía, directed by Julio Medem
July 29 – Duet For Cannibals, directed by Susan Sontag
July 30 – The Ballad of Narayama, directed by Shôhei Imamura | Shôhei Imamura: A Double Bill
July 31 – Black Rain, directed by Shôhei Imamura | Shôhei Imamura: A Double Bill

The post MUBI Unveils July 2023 Lineup first appeared on The Film Stage.

It was just after Thanksgiving last year that we received the exciting news that Paul Thomas Anderson––who turns 53 today––was set to embark on his tenth narrative feature this summer. While a few casting call details provided insight into what we may expect, the project has otherwise been shrouded in secrecy as expected, despite some baseless rumors he could be adapting Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland. While production has been delayed due to the WGA strike, we have our first notable update in some time.

Buried in a piece on the ongoing battle to save TCM from David Zaslav’s profit-hungry, anti-art ethos––recently slashing about 70 jobs at TCM, cutting the staff from 90 to 20, yet still ludicrously promises not much will change at the channel––IndieWire‘s Eric Kohn reports that Paul Thomas Anderson is set to reteam with Warner Bros. on his next project. Last working with the studio a decade ago for Inherent Vice (still his best film, as I discussed at length), the partnership makes sense as Michael De Luca, the new-ish head of Warner Bros. film group, has a long history with the director, backing Licorice Pizza when he was with MGM and working on Boogie Nights and Magnolia when he was at New Line.

As for any more details, Kohn only mentions the long-gestating rumors of Joaquin Phoenix, Viggo Mortensen, and Regina Hall being attached to PTA’s film. They can be added to a rumored list that at various points included Leonardo DiCaprio, Rachael Taylor, Taylour Paige, Vicky Krieps, Jack Champion, and Harriet Sansom Harris. Per usual, don’t expect any official confirmations until cameras start to roll and set pics arrive. In the meantime it’s nice to know he has the backing of a major studio, including one who did a stellar marketing job attempting to sell the PTA film that probably least appeals to a general audience.

The post A Decade After Inherent Vice, Paul Thomas Anderson to Reteam with Warner Bros. for Next Film first appeared on The Film Stage.

Two of the best films of the year also happen to feature two of the best soundtracks of the year and as each enters a wide release today, the scores are now available to stream in full. Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City boasts an epic soundtrack of 25 songs amounting to over 70 minutes, featuring Alexandre Desplat, Jarvis Cocker, Big Crosby, Les Paul, Burl Ives, Tex Ritter, Les Baxter, and many more.

Then, Grizzly Bear’s Christopher Bear and Daniel Rossen reunited to score Celine Song’s debut Past Lives, clocking in at 16 tracks around 40 minutes, also including the end credits track “Quiet Eyes” by Sharon Van Etten and Zachary Dawes. “What a pleasure it was to score this film with [Rossen] and make music I feel very connected with,” said Bear. “Celine Song is a force and had such incredible vision and execution.”

Luke Hicks said in his Cannes review of Asteroid City, “A sultry, creamy western that feels more like a vacation, Asteroid City is an absolute delight, Anderson’s best since The Grand Budapest Hotel. It practically begs you to sit back, relax, and enjoy yourself. Hell, it might even want you to take a nap, but not for lack of entertainment. As the characters of Asteroid City know all too well, “You can’t wake up if you don’t fall asleep.” Remember that.”

I said in my Sundance review of Past Lives, “Whether miniscule or major, the millions of decisions we make form the winding path of our lives. Specific reasons for taking certain forks in the road can often be lost to the sea of time, swelling back up only as our memory allows. A triptych not-quite-romance crossing nearly a quarter-century, playwright Celine Song’s directorial debut Past Lives examines such universal experience with keen cultural specificity, telling the story of childhood friends who twice reconnect later in life. It’s a warm, patient film culminating in a quietly powerful, reflective finale, though its sum is greater than its parts when the first two sections register a touch underdeveloped.”

Listen to both below, and watch a video on the making of the musical performance in Asteroid City.

The post Listen to the Soundtracks for Asteroid City and Past Lives first appeared on The Film Stage.

I honestly never expected Steven Spielberg in a Criterion Channel series––certainly not one that pairs him with Kogonada, anime, and Johnny Mnemonic––but so’s the power of artificial intelligence. Perhaps his greatest film (at this point I don’t need to tell you the title) plays with After Yang, Ghost in the Shell, and pre-Matrix Keanu in July’s aptly titled “AI” boasting also Spike Jonze’s Her, Carpenter’s Dark Star, and Computer Chess. Much more analog is a British Noir collection obviously carrying the likes of Odd Man Out, Night and the City, and The Small Back Room, further filled by Joseph Losey’s Time Without Pity and Basil Dearden’s It Always Rains on Sunday. (No two ways about it: these movies have great titles.) An Elvis retrospective brings six features, and the consensus best (Don Siegel’s Flaming Star) comes September 1.

While Isabella Rossellini participates in an Adventures in Moviegoing lineup, many of her father’s films are getting a unique program. (Friendly tip: prioritize L’amore and India: Matri Bhumi.) Godland, Will-o’-the-Wisp, the Scorsese-presented Eight Deadly Shots, and two films by Masashi Yamamoto make streaming debuts. There’s only one Criterion Edition, but it’s six Once Upon a Time In China films with many features. Kubrick (circa the 1950s), Susan Seidelman, and Stanley Kwan are subject of retrospectives. Mean Streets and Showgirls crop up. Just a crazy month.

Back By Popular Demand
The Last Picture Show, Peter Bogdanovich, 1971

California Split, Robert Altman, 1974

Cutter’s Way, Ivan Passer, 1981

Thief, Michael Mann, 1981

Something Wild, Jonathan Demme, 1986

Ghost World, Terry Zwigoff, 2001

Premiering In July
2046, Wong Kar Wai, 2004

38, Micaela Durand and Daniel Chew, 2021

A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Steven Spielberg, 2001

After Yang, Kogonada, 2021*

All Is Full of Love (Björk music video),Chris Cunningham, 1999

The Barefoot Contessa, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1954

Blue Hawaii, Norman Taurog, 1961

Breathless, Jim McBride, 1983

California Split, Robert Altman, 1974

Civic, Dwayne LeBlanc, 2022

Colossus: The Forbin Project, Joseph Sargent, 1970

Cutter’s Way, Ivan Passer, 1981

Dad’s Dead, Chris Shepherd, 2002

Dangerous Game, Abel Ferrara, 1993

Demon Seed, Donald Cammell, 1977

The Diabolic Tenant, Georges Méliès, 1906

Eight Deadly Shots, Mikko Niskanen, 1972

Ennui ennui, Gabriel Abrantes, 2013

Fear and Desire, 1953

First, Micaela Durand and Daniel Chew, 2017

Funeral, Leah Shore, 2018

Ghost in the Shell, Mamoru Oshii, 1995

Ghost World, Terry Zwigoff, 2001

Hallway, Leah Shore, 2015

Hell Drivers, Cy Endfield, 1957

Her, Spike Jonze, 2013

I Love You So Much, Leah Shore, 2014

The Impossible Voyage, Georges Méliès, 1904

The Infernal Cauldron, Georges Méliès, 1903

The Inventor Crazybrains and His Wonderful Airship, Georges Méliès, 1905

It Always Rains on Sunday, Robert Hamer, 1947

Jailhouse Rock, Richard Thorpe, 1957

Joan of Arc, Georges Méliès, 1900

Johnny Mnemonic, Robert Longo, 1995*

Killer’s Kiss, Stanley Kubrick, 1955

The Killing, Stanley Kubrick, 1956

King Creole, Michael Curtiz, 1958

The Kingdom of the Fairies, Georges Méliès, 1903

The Last Picture Show, Peter Bogdanovich, 1971

Launch, Leah Shore, 2021

Life After BOB: The Chalice Study, Ian Cheng, 2021

Love Me Tender, Robert D. Webb, 1956

Love unto Waste, Stanley Kwan, 1986

Madeline’s Madeline, Josephine Decker, 2018*

Making Mr. Right, Susan Seidelman, 1987

Mean Streets, Martin Scorsese, 1973

Miracles, Jackie Chan, 1989

Mother of George, Andrew Dosunmu, 2013

Negative Two, Micaela Durand and Daniel Chew, 2019

Night and the City, Jules Dassin, 1950

Once Upon a Time in China, Tsui Hark, 1991

Once Upon a Time in China and America, Sammo Hung, 1997

Once Upon a Time in China II, Tsui Hark, 1992

Once Upon a Time in China III, Tsui Hark, 1993

Once Upon a Time in China IV, Yuen Bun, 1993

Once Upon a Time in China V, Tsui Hark, 1994

Os humores artificiais, Gabriel Abrantes, 2016

The Merry Frolics of Satan, Georges Méliès, 1906

Paths of Glory, Stanley Kubrick, 1957

The Pillar of Fire, Georges Méliès, 1899

Pool of London, Basil Dearden, 1951

Puss, Leah Shore, 2021

Rip’s Dream, Georges Méliès, 1905

Robinson Crusoe, Georges Méliès, 1903

Robinson’s Garden, Masashi Yamamoto, 1987

She-Devil, Susan Seidelman, 1989

Showgirls, Paul Verhoeven, 1995

Something Wild, Jonathan Demme, 1986

Summer 1993, Carla Simon, 2017

Teknolust, Lynn Hershman Leeson, 2002

Thief, Michael Mann, 1981

A Trip to the Moon, Georges Méliès, 190

Viva Las Vegas, George Sidney, 1964

What’s Up Connection, Masashi Yamamoto, 1990

Whimsical Illusions, Georges Méliès, 1910

Wild in the Country, Philip Dunne, 1961

Will-o’-the-Wisp, João Pedro Rodrigues, 2022

The Witch, Georges Méliès, 1906

Yield to the Night, J. Lee Thompson, 1956

Zardoz, John Boorman, 1974

*Available in the U.S. only

The post The Criterion Channel’s July Lineup Includes A.I., British Noir, Elvis & More first appeared on The Film Stage.

While much of Hollywood’s top brass couldn’t care less about the craft of filmmaking and preservation of the very medium that is responsible for their positions in the first place, few executives have become so widely, unanimously despised so immediately as David Zaslav. With a sole focus on profits, the Warner Bros. Discovery CEO has gutted both his streaming libraries and canceled films that were near-completion, while also denigrating his flagship HBO brand in the unveiling of Max, a streaming service that gives more prominence to Naked and Afraid and Dr. Pimple Popper than TCM and Studio Ghibli. He even lambasted his execs for financially supporting Clint Eastwood––a director who has delivered numerous hits for WB––simply because Cry Macho wasn’t profitable.

This week, the multi-millionaire exec hit a new professional low when it comes to respecting the culture of cinema, laying off Turner Classic Movies’ executive VP and general manager Pola Changnon; senior VP of programming and content strategy, Charles Tabesh; VP of brand creative and marketing Dexter Fedor; VP of enterprises and strategic partnerships and director of TCM Film Festival Genevieve McGillicuddy; and VP of studio production Anne Wilson.

Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Paul Thomas Anderson, three of the channel’s biggest champions and some of the only remaining notable directors who seem to give a damn about protecting and preserving a century-worth of filmmaking culture (for a flip side of the coin, read the Russos waxing poetic about the possibilities of A.I.-generated filmmaking), thankfully immediately got Zaslav on the phone. Amblin has now released a joint statement from the trio:

Turner Classic Movies has always been more than just a channel. It is truly a precious resource of cinema, open 24 hours a day seven days a week. And while it has never been a financial juggernaut, it has always been a profitable endeavor since its inception.

Earlier this week, David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, got in touch to talk about the restructuring of TCM. We understand the pressures and realities of a corporation as large as WBD, of which TCM is one moving part.

We have each spent time talking to David, separately and together, and it’s clear that TCM and classic cinema are very important to him.  Our primary aim is to ensure that TCM’s programming is untouched and protected.

We are heartened and encouraged by the conversations we’ve had thus far, and we are committed to working together to ensure the continuation of this cultural touchstone that we all treasure.

As former TCM employee Marya E. Gates notes, it’s a disappointingly vague statement that feels like coddling PR speak with no actual sense of financial or institutional commitment. Here’s hoping that Zaslav can dedicate the funds to ensure longevity for TCM and its mission to promote and preserve film culture, perhaps from siphoning just some of the profits that he hopes to gain from rebooting Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings.

In the meantime, we encourage you to read the below tweet thread from EW’s Maureen Lee Lenker and a note from Milestone Film’s Dennis Doros, plus a message from TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz and Scott McGee. We’ve also embedded Spielberg and PTA’s conversation from the opening of TCM Classic Film Festival just a few months ago, where they sat with Zaslav on stage as he uttered a few words of commitment to TCM’s mission that now seems like all smoke and mirrors in retrospect. Then again, I suppose we shouldn’t expect much more from the man who called his company’s mega-bomb The Flash the “best superhero movie I’ve ever seen.”

The post Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Paul Thomas Anderson Release Vague Statement About the Future of TCM first appeared on The Film Stage.

Ah, okay: so there’s really just one Wes Anderson film this year. He can be forgiven for not putting out two ornate, exhaustively manicured works in a twelve-month span, just as we can be absolved for assuming The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar might be notably longer than an episode of Eastbound & Down. But during an interview with Indiewire the director, who is hours out from the release of Asteroid City, revealed his second Roald Dahl adaptation will in fact be closer to BBC’s Play for Today series––which gave a medium-length platform for the likes of Mike Leigh and Alan Clarke––than Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Whatever jokes can be made about the change in expectations, it’s only refreshing to have a capital-A Auteur use Netflix’s fake-capital empire for these experiments in adaptation and duration. And par for this director’s course: Anderson compared the endeavor to 2007’s Darjeeling Limited preface Hotel Chevalier, which screened in Apple stores and was freely available via iTunes, but I also think of Castello Cavalcanti, a Prada production, or any commercials he’s done on and off for 20 years. None of this is outside a huge norm. Much as it marks a surprise.

Anderson’s phrasing also suggests a Faustian bargain of not getting theatrical play: “it’s not quite the choice between a full-fledged cinema release and a streaming release because you would never distribute a short film like that and distribute it in cinemas.” Yet as our conversation with DP Robert Yeoman revealed a 16mm production, I suspect there’ll be plenty to salivate over, no matter the length or distribution model.

The post Wes Anderson’s The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar is 37 Minutes Long first appeared on The Film Stage.

In 1962 Orson Welles directed The Trial; in 1993 the music video for David Bowie’s “Jump They Say” paid tribute in a characteristically pop-art fashion; in 2022 Brett Morgen’s Moonage Daydream gave a small window into the video’s making; and in 2023 both films––by extension bits of “Jump They Say” to boot––arrive on 4K from Criterion. For Welles it’s all about the deep blacks and luminescent grain; in Morgan’s case (but also Bowie’s) it’s the wealth of archival material and DTS-HD.

Their September slate also boasts two 4K upgrades, one recent and one legacy: The Princess Bride jumps to 2,160 pixels just five years after its Blu-ray edition, while longtime favorite Walkabout ought to look flaberrgastingly sharp. Meanwhile, La Bamba arrives on Blu-ray.

Find artwork below and more at Criterion.

The post The Criterion Collection’s September Slate Brings Orson Welles, David Bowie, The Princess Bride, and Nicolas Roeg in 4K first appeared on The Film Stage.

While Guillermo del Toro continues prep work on his forthcoming live-action feature Frankenstein for Netflix, with Andrew Garfield, Oscar Isaac, and Mia Goth attached, the director is coming off his Oscar-winning animation Pinocchio and it’s a form of storytelling we can expect him to solely move into in the future. “There are a couple more live-action movies I want to do but not many,” he said while at Annecy animation festival earlier this week. “After that, I only want to do animation. That’s the plan.”

As THR reports, the Mexican filmmaker didn’t mince words when it comes to how he thinks the studio animation system needs to change. “I believe you can make an adult fantasy drama with stop-motion and move people emotionally. I think stop-motion can be intravenous, it can go straight to your emotions in a way that no other medium can,” he said. “The three hits of Spider-Verse, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Mario are moving things, allowing a little more latitude, but there are still big fights to be had,” he added. “Animation to me is the purest form of art, and it’s been kidnapped by a bunch of hoodlums. We have to rescue it. [And] I think that we can Trojan-horse a lot of good shit into the animation world.”

Getting more specific, he went on to detail what he despises about certain lazy proclivities in commercial animation, notably how characters and emotions are “codified into a sort of teenage rom-com, almost emoji-style behavior.” He added, “[If] I see a character raising his fucking eyebrow, or crossing his arms, having a sassy pose — oh, I hate that shit. [Why] does everything act as if they’re in a sitcom? I think it is emotional pornography. All the families are happy and sassy and quick, everyone has a one-liner. Well, my dad was boring. I was boring. Everybody in my family was boring. We had no one-liners. We’re all fucked up. That’s what I want to see animated. I would love to see real life in animation. I actually think it’s urgent. think it’s urgent to see real life in animation.”

In terms of what the director may tackle next in the world of animation, he’s developing a stop-motion animation adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2015 novel The Buried Giant. We also got an update on an intriguing forthcoming animation. Charlie Kaufman has written the new animated feature Orion and the Dark, directed by Sean Charmatz, and ahead of a 2024 release by Netflix, the first look at the DreamWorks Animation production has arrived. See below along with the synopsis:

Orion seems a lot like your average elementary school kid – shy, unassuming, harboring a secret crush. But underneath his seemingly normal exterior, Orion is a ball of adolescent anxiety, completely consumed by irrational fears of bees, dogs, the ocean, cell phone waves, murderous gutter clowns, and even falling off of a cliff. But of all his fears, the thing he’s the most afraid of is what he confronts on a nightly basis: the dark. So when the literal embodiment of his worst fear pays a visit, Dark whisks Orion away on a roller coaster ride around the world to prove there is nothing to be afraid of in the night. As the unlikely pair grows closer, Orion must decide if he can learn to accept the unknown – to stop letting fear control his life and finally embrace the joy of living.

The post Guillermo del Toro Says “We Have to Rescue” Studio Animation From “Emoji-Style Behavior” first appeared on The Film Stage.

Four years after world premiering Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood to Cannes Film Festival, Quentin Tarantino returned to the festival last month with the tease of a secret screening. Considering the recent “death” of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Rick Dalton––for which Tarantino delivered a two-part, two-hour-plus eulogy to the fictional character (more on that below)––rumors swirled it may be the discussed extended cut of his 2019 feature. However, it turned out to be the 1977 Paul Schrader-scripted gem Rolling Thunder, a film that Tarantino wrote about extensively in “Cinema Speculation” and which he aims to recreate in his own vision for his forthcoming final feature The Movie Critic.

While at Cannes, he also took part in a 70-minute masterclass which has now been published in its entirety. While the on-stage French translation means it’s a bit briefer than a standard talk of this variety, it’s replete with a wealth of wisdom, including further thoughts from the director on violence (he says he would never kill an animal in one of his films), revising history in his films, his issues with Taxi Driver, getting into fights about his love for Brian De Palma, how Schrader has detached himself from Rolling Thunder as much as Tarantino has for Natural Born Killers, and more. Though if you’re looking for new details on The Movie Critic, you’ll have to wait.

However, he did share his thoughts on this streaming age with Deadline. “I’m probably going to be doing the movie with Sony because they’re the last game in town that is just absolutely, utterly, committed to the theatrical experience. It’s not about feeding their streaming network. They are committed to theatrical experience. They judge success by asses on seats. And they judge success by the movies entering the zeitgeist, not just making a big expensive movie and then putting it on your streaming platform. No one even knows it’s there. I mean, and I’m not picking on anybody, but apparently for Netflix, Ryan Reynolds has made $50 million on this movie and $50 million on that movie and $50 million on the next movie for them. I don’t know what any of those movies are. I’ve never seen them.” He added, “I haven’t ever talked to Ryan Reynolds’ agent, but his agent is like, ‘Well, it cost $50 million.’ Well, good for him that he’s making so much money. But those movies don’t exist in the zeitgeist. It’s almost like they don’t even exist.”

Watch the masterclass below, and listen to QT and Roger Avary’s aforementioned eulogy to the “late,” fictional Rick Dalton below.

The post Watch: Quentin Tarantino Talks Violence, Taxi Driver, Brian De Palma & More in 70-Minute Cannes Masterclass first appeared on The Film Stage.

I opened Twitter on a beautiful Friday evening because I’ve long struggled to treat myself well and ultimately don’t believe I deserve happiness. But after 14 years it’s paid off: much chatter led me to The Guardian‘s recent piece on Claire Denis, a fascinating (and accurate) window into the experience of interviewing a not-always-patient genius. More than a good read it’s a brief look ahead, with notice Denis has just––as in: last week––finished writing a new feature for which she’ll begin scouting this month in Cameroon.

Cameroon, of course, bearing profound significance: experiences growing up in the country were basis for Denis’ debut feature Chocolat, as autobiographical as the corpus gets, and more than two decades hence she’d return to film the majority of White Material, about which she’s long spoken in extremely intimate terms. (As she told me in 2018, “Isabelle Huppert in White Material is very close to me.”) Zero further word on what the film is, and being that scoop sites won’t exactly hit every contact to know what Denis does next––expect same for the next little while. But further movement from a filmmaker who only last year showed further sign of sustained (or at least notable-enough) brilliance deserves such mention.

If you know anything, the line at nick@thefilmstage.com is perpetually open.

The post Claire Denis Has Written a New Feature; Location-Scouting Begins This Month first appeared on The Film Stage.

Update: Speaking with Le Monde, Wes Anderson gave a small update on his next feature:

“My next feature film will be linear, with Benicio Del Toro in every shot. I can’t tell you much more than that except that it will be about espionage, a father-daughter relationship, and, let’s say, with a rather dark tone.”

Meanwhile (per Richard Brody) Anderson told Cahiers du Cinéma, “I’m going in another direction and it will probably be less dark than I’d planned. It will be a lot about family, even more than in Asteroid City.”

Read the original story below.

While we’re just ten days away from Wes Anderson’s sci-fi western Asteroid City––a film that is very much worth the wait––the director is already in various stages on his next projects. This fall will see the Netflix release of The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, the director’s 12th feature and second Roald Dahl adaptation, which brings together Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, Rupert Friend, and Richard Ayoade. Following that there’s been word of a 13th feature in the works, and confirmation has finally arrived.

While speaking with cinematographer Robert Yeoman about Asteroid City, we learned production will begin later this year on the mysterious project, though he doesn’t have any more details to share. “I’m out of the loop on that one. But [Wes Anderson] works. He’s a workaholic. I’ll give him that. We jumped right from Asteroid City into the Henry Sugar thing. We were in Spain and then we went to England. He works harder than anybody. He’s just always got something going on. I’m a little more like: take some time off and enjoy my life,” he said with a laugh.

While no word on the plot has been revealed, it’s been reported Michael Cera (who was originally attached to Asteroid City), Jeff Goldblum, and Benicio Del Toro are circling the new film. If it’s anything like his recent ensemble projects, expect many more casting announcements to trickle in over the next few months. In the meantime, Yeoman also shared more details about the forthcoming Henry Sugar, which will feature four separate stories with actors playing different roles across the stories.

“Three of them were shot on a stage. One of them is out in the jungle. So it was quite a challenge to create all this on a stage. And each one has a very distinct look to it. We shot 16mm for the whole thing, which when I saw the finished film, the first thing I wrote Wes was I just love the 16mm. It has such a distinct look to it,” the cinematographer said. “But again, he’s pushing the boundaries and it’s a very different style, in some ways, than what Wes usually does. When I saw the film––I saw it a couple of months ago, they were color timing––I loved it when we worked on it, but when I saw it on the screen, I was like, ‘This is really cool.’ It was really amazing. And I’ll be curious how everyone reacts to it. It’s a little bit different style than what Wes ordinarily does. I think a lot of it has to do with, when he did those animated movies, it changed how he approaches making a film now. And that one in particular, we knew there would be something that would be put on the screen up on top or something, because it was on a stage. Everything was forced perspective. And so it was a little tricky oftentimes. But, you know, it challenges you. And when you can pull it off, you get a great deal of satisfaction with that.”

With color-timing taking place a few months ago, it sounds like it’ll be ready for a fall festival premiere. Check back soon for my full conversation with Yeoman and make sure to visit Asteroid City when it opens on June 16 and expands wide on June 23.

The post Exclusive: Wes Anderson Will Begin Shooting His 13th Feature Later This Year first appeared on The Film Stage.