Amanda Seyfried (“First Reformed”) and Lily Collins (“Rules Don’t Apply“) have been added to the cast, which Includes Gary Oldman in the titular role. Oldman is set to play legendary screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz (who co-wrote “Citizen Kane” with Orson Welles). “Mank” will tackle the contentious pre-production of ‘Kane,’ when Mankiewicz and Welles were developing the project. Fincher, who these last five years has dedicated his time to the popular Netflix shows he created (“House of Cards” and “Mindhunter”), has seen two potential cinematic projects fall apart....

If you remember, back in December of 2018, Villeneuve had revealed an urge he had in the “Blade Runner 2049" editing room to release the film in two separate parts as he originally had a 4 hour cut of the film. Then there was another urge to release the 240 minute cut in its entirety, saying that cut was “quite strong,” which, of course, didn’t make much sense commercially as that kind of running time tends to be a box-office kiss of death....

Villeneuve, whose upcoming “Dune” is part of the streaming deal, has written an essay for Variety, a scathing response to Warner Bros.’ HBO Max all-streaming decision. Suffice to say, he’s not happy, and the brunt of his anger is being directed towards AT&T and its hold over the WB. Warner Bros. has turned into a total shitshow. If you remember, they negotiated $10M buyouts for the “Wonder Woman” team before announcing the HBO Max deal, setting a precedent for their tentpole releases....

Rome wasn’t built in a day. It’ll take time for the industry to catch up to inclusive filmmaking, despite all that, yeah, count me as disappointed that Debra Granik, Jennifer Fox and Lynne Ramsay aren’t part of the current awards chatter, they made great films this past year. Filmmaker Lenny Abrahamson, tweeted his disappointment for Debra Granik and Lynne Ramsay not being recognized for their works by the DGA yesterday when they announced five males nominated for their director prize....

The biggest victims seem to be adult dramas such as the Tom Hanks starrer “News of the World,” an adaptation of Angie Thomas’ best-seller “On the Come Up,” and Ted Melfi’s mental-hospital-set, Woody Harrelson-starring dramedy “Fruit Loops.” Of course, this being Disney, they had absolutely no problem in keeping the Matthew Vaughn-directed Kingsman prequel “The Great Game.” “We are now just only beginning to see how all this consolidation will change how movies get greenlit and made,” says a producer involved with a Fox-developed movie....

The mouse house’s streaming service has announced a near 4 million jump in total subscribers since the last quarter, it has also jumped from early 2021’s 95 million to now a total of 138 million subscribers. During its late 2019 launch, Disney’s goal was to reach 60 to 90 million subscriptions by 2024. Mission accomplished. They have surpassed that number by a whopping three years in advance. In fact, given the service’s strong momentum, Disney also stated in today’s press release that they now expect 230 million to 260 million total paid subscribers by September 2024....

Thanks to a new interview with Vanity Fair, Norton spilled more beans about “Motherless Brooklyn.” The most pressing quote to be found in the piece is Norton’s explanation as to why he changed the decade: “Jonathan’s book is this incredible character,” Norton said. “It was set in the late ’90s but it had a quality to it of an anachronistic bubble of acting like ’50s gumshoes. I made the case to Jonathan that film is very literal, and I didn’t think I wanted to make something that felt like irony....

“One thing i love about Armageddon Time is that it’s kind of an origin story for AD ASTRA, which some people have embarrassingly yet to acknowledge as an unequivocal masterpiece on account of how dumb they are.” James Gray’s “Ad Astra” was one of the most frustrating watches I’ve had at a film the last 10 years or so. You can’t help but admire the ambitions of Gray in trying to make his space-opera, and yet the story doesn’t truly soar to the heights he may have wanted....

Given the secrecy of the plot, no spoilers will be posted here. In fact, I am refraining from reading anything about “Tenet” until I get to see it at a scheduled press screening. Regardless, here are the first two reactions I received: The next person — Warner Bros. is set to open Nolan’s long-awaited epic in over 70 countries worldwide, including Europe and Canada, starting on Wednesday, August 26. Meanwhile, “Tenet” will be released in the U....

What I didn’t expect after publishing the piece, which was titled ‘White Noise’: Details Surface About Noah Baumbach’s Catastrophic 9-Month, $140 Million Shoot, was an influx of messages in my inbox thanking me for “exposing” what actually occurred on the set of “White Noise.” What did I expose exactly? That the budget ballooned to $140 million? Fine. That a stunt went bad on-set? That’s not uncommon. That three crew members died?...

The passion del Toro has for movies also comes through in the film essays he writes.. He did it last year for when he beautifully deconstructed his fellow compatriot Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” and he’s doing it again this year with an eloquently written essay on Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman.” In the essay, written for Variety, del Toro calls Scorsese’s magnum opus “ascetic” and “the work of a master,” hailing that it is the director’s “memento mori....

AMC Theaters is applying variable pricing for “The Batman,” which means that, depending on demographics, a single ticket to watch Matt Reeves’ 3-hour epic could cost you $29. That’s how much singlet tickets are going for right now in New York’s Upper West Side [via Showbiz411]. An hour north, in Port Chester, New York, the price is $23. Up in Chicago, a ‘Batman’ ticket is priced at $23.17. The Grove in West Hollywood has it going for $19....

“I’m delighted and honoured to bestow this award on John Travolta for his performance in The Fanatic,” the festival’s artistic director Antonio Monda stated. “It’s a stirring and surprising performance that succeeds in showing how dreams often turn into nightmares in Hollywood.” In the thriller, Travolta plays Moose, a fan obsessed with an actor, Hunter Dunbar. The Rome Festival award is surprising considering the movie has been panned left and right by critics....

Of course, the media, who had a clearcut bias against Depp before the trial even started, engaging in their own kind of defaming, are trying to spin Depp’s victory today in court. “Johnny Depp and Amber Heard Each Defamed Each Other, Jury Rules,” so states Variety. Quite the sly spin. The pre-trial narrative was that Depp abused Heard and that she was a #MeToo survivor, but things have clearly changed with all the court evidence presented in Depp’s favor....

Ever since hitting it big as an indie star filmmaker, Wang has been quite vocal on social media, opting to be political whenever necessary. Today, her target was Ron Howard, who, according to Deadline, signed on to direct and produce a new biopic about Chinese pianist Lang Lang. Lang wasn’t happy with the news and made it clear to her Twitter followers, showing her disapproval and blatantly calling out Howard....

Speculation is also leaning towards Scorsese’s movie completely skipping upcoming fall festivals due to the complicated de-aging VFX process that the movie utilizes. Regardless, it’s not as if Scorsese needs to go to TIFF or Venice to prove anything, he’s already proven his worth in a career spanning close to five decades and almost a dozen film classics. “The Irishman” stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci and is based on Charles Brandt’s novel “I Hear You Paint Houses” The film will tell the story of Frank Sheeran, a man who claimed to have killed fellow Teamster Jimmy Hoffa....

Statement from NYFF festival director Kent Jones: “The Irishman is so many things: rich, funny, troubling, entertaining and, like all great movies, absolutely singular. It’s the work of masters, made with a command of the art of cinema that I’ve seen very rarely in my lifetime, and it plays out at a level of subtlety and human intimacy that truly stunned me. All I can say is that the minute it was over my immediate reaction was that I wanted to watch it all over again....

Here’s how the Gold Derby polling has it so far: My take is simple: “The Fabelmans” is indeed top of the class at the moment, although I’m not quite sure if there is a wide enough audience for it at the box-office. This is where “Top Gun: Maverick” comes into play, which is my current #2. I mean, what else would you have in second place? “Everything Everywhere All At Once” will polarize older voters, the visually drab and stagey “Women Talking” is not going to connect with a majority of voters, “TAR” (the critical darling of the year) is too cold and Kubrickian to connect with wide appeal....

In an interview with The Wrap, NAACP president Derrick Johnson called “Green Book” a “missed opportunity” to tell a nuanced story about race relations. “Mahershala Ali’s portrayal, I mean, his skills were great. So I see [the film] as a missed opportunity to have great content that’s more accurate than not,” Johnson said. “So for me, it was great acting skills for Mahershala, with a false storyline that’s masquerading to be true....

And so, Lapid’s astonishing, messy, scary, hilarious and, yes, landmark “Synonyms” is a much-needed treatise on identity in the 21st century. It makes sense that it was co-produced by “Toni Erdmann” director Maren Ade, since it shares that film’s impeccably balanced mix of comedy and drama. The film is based on Lapid’s own experience as a young Israeli man who fled to Paris because he believed that he was born in the Middle East by mistake....