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Making the Most of R-Ratings Paramount Pictures It’s expected that high-profile horror films, especially legacy and franchise players like “Scream,” will vy for the R-rating because they can afford to miss out on the coveted teen audiences. Anytime a horror movie is announced to have a PG-13 rating, the immediate (and frequently incorrect) assumption is that the film will be “bad,” because it is presupposed that the film will lack the hallmarks of horror films....

Steven Spielberg Could’ve Directed A Harry Potter Film — Here’s Why He Didn’t Warner Bros. By Fatemeh Mirjalili/Dec. 1, 2021 9:46 am EST It has been 10 years since the final film in the “Harry Potter” franchise came out. Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort reunited for one last, epic battle where good triumphed over evil, bringing back peace to Hogwarts for the first time … since Harry enrolled in school. Now, the movies weren’t perfect....

Halloween — Loomis’ speech Compass International Pictures If there’s one actor associated with the Halloween franchise whose name isn’t Jamie Lee Curtis, it’s Donald Pleasence. Over the years, Pleasance has been refreshingly candid about his experience shooting the movie, claiming to not understand certain aspects of the film. Still, he clearly enjoyed something about his role as Dr. Sam Loomis, as he returned for four of the sequels. He is at his best in the first film, and this speech, in which he describes Michael, is one of the most memorable moments in horror cinema....

Play Misty for Me (1971) Universal Pictures “Play Misty for Me” is Clint Eastwood’s 1971 directorial debut, and what’s great about his opening gambit behind the camera is that it’s nothing like the rest of his western-heavy canon. Eastwood recalls getting his Director’s Guild union card before shooting the film with immense fondness. “It was a great period in my life,” he said in “Play it Again: A Look Back at Play Misty for Me,” “and it was a very experimental time for me....

The Quarantine Stream: ‘Dracula: Sovereign Of The Damned’ Nearly Defies Description By Ben Pearson/March 1, 2021 7:00 am EST (Welcome to The Quarantine Stream, a new series where the /Film team shares what they’ve been watching while social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.)The Movie: Dracula: Sovereign of the DamnedWhere You Can Stream It: YouTubeThe Pitch: Furious at Satan for turning him into a vampire hundreds of years earlier, Dracula plots an elaborate revenge against the devil and steals Satan’s would-be bride from a cult ceremony....

The Unexpected Inspiration Behind Chewbacca Lucasfilm By Ethan Anderton/Dec. 2, 2021 2:52 pm EST George Lucas might not oversee Lucasfilm anymore, but he’s still the creator of “Star Wars.” Despite its massive popularity today with new projects such as “The Mandalorian” and “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” you can’t beat the original “Star Wars” trilogy, which introduced us to Lucas’ space odyssey for the first time. At 33 years old, Lucas created heroes and villains in two orders, the Sith and the Jedi, always at the center of the space opera we know and love....

Bringing the Thunder Marvel Studios “Thor: Love and Thunder” has just added one of its biggest names yet to the production. With Taika Waititi back behind the director’s chair and Chris Hemsworth set to lead a cast that includes Tessa Thompson, Natalie Portman, Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Chris Pratt, Karen Gillan, and likely many more surprises, the fourth “Thor” film will now be bolstered by the addition of composer Michael Giacchino....

‘Ancient Aliens’ Movie Coming From ‘Cobra Kai’ Showrunner Josh Heald By Chris Evangelista/April 7, 2021 3:30 pm EST At long last, Ancient Aliens, a wildly inaccurate series that asks, “What if almost everything that happened in history was actually caused by aliens?” is becoming a movie. The movie is coming from Josh Heald, one of the showrunners of Cobra Kai, and is described as a “globe-spanning adventure featuring ancient sites and artifacts....

‘Black Adam’ Cast Adds Pierce Brosnan As DC Superhero Doctor Fate By Chris Evangelista/March 24, 2021 3:20 pm EST The Black Adam cast has a new addition: Pierce Brosnan, who is set to play Doctor Fate in the upcoming Jaume Collet-Serra-directed film. Dwayne Johnson stars as the title character, an antihero who breaks out of his super-prison and has to be stopped by a group of superheroes known as the Justice Society Of America....

‘Looney Tunes Cartoons’ Season 2 Gives Elmer Fudd His Gun Back By Ethan Anderton/July 12, 2021 10:18 am EST When HBO Max debuted their new series of Looney Tunes Cartoons featuring revamped versions of the classic Warner Bros. Pictures characters, there was one key element missing from two of Bugs Bunny’s most famous enemies. Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam weren’t seen using guns despite always blasting away at the wascally wabbit/lily-livered, bow-legged varmint in the classic cartoons....

‘Made For Love’ Review: Cristin Milioti Is Outstanding In HBO Max’s Sinister, Hilarious Blend Of Sci-Fi, Horror, And Comedy [SXSW] By Jacob Hall/March 17, 2021 10:00 am EST A bleak near-future where late capitalism and big tech have created a nightmarish new reality. An abused woman on the run from her powerful, wealthy, sociopathic partner. Cristin Milioti winning our hearts while enduring one insane event after another in the desert. The first episode of Made for Love invites comparisons to Black Mirror, The Invisible Man, and Palm Springs by default....

‘Respect’ Trailer: Jennifer Hudson Is Aretha Franklin In The Biopic Due Out This Summer By Chris Evangelista/May 19, 2021 10:30 am EST It’s been a hot second since we had a musician biopic, so here comes Respect. Jennifer Hudson stars as Aretha Franklin in the film, which follows Franklin’s “career from a child singing in her father’s church’s choir to her international superstardom.” Interestingly enough, this isn’t the only Aretha Franklin-based dramatization we’ve had this year....

‘Spriggan’ Trailer: Netflix’s Sci-Fi Action Anime Gets Delayed To 2022 By Joshua Meyer/July 13, 2021 5:38 am EST Netflix continues to expand its slate of original anime films and TV shows, but viewers will have to wait a little while longer before they see Spriggan. The series, based on the best-selling manga by Hiroshi Takashige and Ryoji Minagawa, has been bumped to 2022. In the meantime, the streamer has released a new official teaser to whet your appetite....

‘Star Wars: The High Republic’ Wave II Titles Announced By Chris Evangelista/April 12, 2021 12:00 pm EST Star Wars is eternal, and even when there aren’t new movies or TV shows for fans to obsess over, there are still things like The High Republic, a series of interconnected books that are set 200 years before the events of the Skywalker saga. A whole new wave of High Republic titles have just been announced, including comic books, serialized fiction, young adult novels, and more....

‘Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker’ Novelization Adds Needed Context To Jannah Meeting Lando Calrissian By Ethan Anderton/May 10, 2020 1:00 pm EST Plenty of details about Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker have been revealed in supplementary materials like the Visual Dictionary companion book and the novelization of the final chapter of the Skywalker saga. Now yet another detail has been revealed about a much-discussed and perplexing moment from the end of the film....

‘Ted Lasso’ Season 2 Trailer: The Feel-Good Show Of 2020 Is Back To Save 2021 By Ben Pearson/June 21, 2021 7:32 am EST The first season of AppleTV+’s Ted Lasso quickly won over skeptics with its excellent characters, fantastic jokes, heartfelt drama, and undying sense of optimism. And even though things in the U.S. are better than they were this time last year, I could still use a fresh dose of Lasso-style optimism in my life....

‘The Batman’ Adds ‘Teen Wolf’ Twins Max And Charlie Carver By Hoai-Tran Bui/March 4, 2020 1:00 pm EST The Batman has added two more square-jawed men to its cast. Teen Wolf stars Charlie Carver and Max Carver have joined the cast of Matt Reeves’ upcoming comic book movie, which stars the similarly square-jawed Robert Pattinson as the Caped Crusader. It has not been revealed what roles the twins will be playing in The Batman....

‘The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It’ Clip: The Warrens Find Terror In The Woods By Ethan Anderton/May 17, 2021 12:00 pm EST Blockbuster horror makes a return to theaters this summer with The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, the third installment in the franchise starring Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. This time, the Warrens are dealing with a murder case involving demonic possession, and of course there are supernatural happenings abound....

Animaniacs Season 2 First Look Clip: The ’80s Cats Are Back Warner Bros. By BJ Colangelo/Oct. 11, 2021 3:34 pm EST Well, kids, New York Comic Con has a treat for fans of animated hijinks on the Warner Bros. lot. As revealed during NYCC, the return of the beloved “Animaniacs” for season 2 are GOOOOOOOO!!!! Yakko, Wakko, and Dot Warner have been entertaining audiences for almost three decades, and their return in November of 2020 was exactly the type of zany relief we needed eight months into the pandemic....

Blumhouse Is Producing Eight Original Horror Movies Exclusively For EPIX By Ethan Anderton/March 16, 2021 12:30 pm EST Blumhouse and EPIX announced the new partnership today, which will have Jason Blum serving as executive producer of all eight movies. The first movie under the new deal will be A House on the Bayou, written and directed by Alex McAulay (Don’t Tell a Soul). Here’s the official synopsis: Casting is underway, but production should happen quickly since EPIX will be premiering it sometime in December 2021....