“We have set in motion a virtuous cycle,” said board chair Shari Redstone, who made her entrance in a pre-recorded segment that saw her and CEO Bob Bakish arrive in the Bumblebee Camaro from “Transformers” after fighting off evil robots. “Our legacy business powers our transformation, and transformation enhances and expands our legacy.” This is the second time that Redstone’s company has changed its name in two years, but it was all part of the day’s 2 1/2-hour bid to convince Wall Street that it stands a chance in the streaming wars even as it fights for last place among its peers....

Last year, Jenkins herself discussed almost quitting the franchise over not being paid what she was worth. “I totally did [come close to walking away],” Jenkins said. “I started to walk away. I was going to walk away. I even said, ‘I would be happy to go to another studio and make a quarter as much because it’s not a sequel on principle. No problem.” Jenkins called it “uncomfortable” when news originally leaked about behind-the-scenes tensions with Warner Bros....

“This film was due to be finished around about now, but like the rest of the world, has been affected by the COVID pandemic,” Jackson said from his editing room in a new first look video at the project. “And so the only good thing really is that we are in the movie in New Zealand and now that our country has largely stamped out the virus, we were ale to come back into the cutting room and carry on with the editing that we’re doing....

As a Mexican-American woman beginning her rise in Hollywood, Dávila excels at mapping her own experiences onto fictional characters, avoiding the autobiographical trap into which many women creatives often get pigeonholed. Despite her early success, she’s not immune to impostor syndrome. “The process of directing had been very mysterious to me for a long time. … I think that there was this mental hurdle of thinking of myself as a director,” the filmmaker said in a recent interview with IndieWire....

“I knew enough to do more than I did,” Tarantino said at the time, revealing former girlfriend Mira Sorvino told him about Weinstein harassing her. “There was more to it than just the normal rumors, the normal gossip. It wasn’t secondhand. I knew he did a couple of these things. I wish I had taken responsibility for what I heard. If I had done the work I should have done then, I would have had to not work with him....

The “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood” auteur signed on to narrate Showtime’s limited series “Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber,” premiering February 26 — and that’s mostly because of his love of co-creators David Levien and Brian Koppelman’s work on “Billions.” “Super Pumped” tells the story of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Uma Thurman portrays Arianna Huffington, while Hank Azaria stars as Apple’s Tim Cook. Kyle Chandler, Baba Tafti, Kerry Bishé, Mousa Hussein Kraish, and Elisabeth Shue round out the cast....

Tarantino argues in his book that “Taxi Driver” studio Columbia Pictures significantly watered down screenwriter Paul Schrader’s vision for the film, and that it could have been even better if Scorsese shot the original script without revisions. His biggest complaint is that the race of several side characters, namely the pimp Sport (Harvey Keitel), was switched from Black to white. The filmmaker argues that Robert De Niro’s Travis Bickle is a fundamentally racist character, and showing more of his interactions with Black people would have made the film stronger....

After a sexual assault allegation against Elgort surfaced on social media in June 2020, Zegler admitted her breakout role in “West Side Story” became tainted. “I was sitting there having just turned 19, on the precipice of what was promised to be the biggest moment in my life, and was being held accountable [by the public] for accusations that not only had nothing to do with me but were made about a situation that was said to have occurred [five] years prior to when I had met and worked with this person,” Zegler explained to Elle in a May cover story....

During the turbulent upheavals of the anti-war and feminist movements, the rebel nuns fought for their college, freedom, equality, and their own livelihoods. They joined the movements protesting for social justice, earned support from political activists like Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden, and won their independence from the Catholic Church. The Immaculate Heart community survives to this day. Documentary editor-turned-filmmaker Pedro Kos (“Bending the Arc”) artfully blends animation, archival footage, a rich mix of period and contemporary music, and producer Shawnee Isaac Smith’s interviews with the surviving women to tell this dramatic story....

ViacomCBS announced five new original series to coincide with the Paramount+ rebranding news, including “The Offer,” a scripted limited series based on Al Ruddy’s experiences producing “The Godfather.” The 10-episode series is written and executive produced by Michael Tolkin (“Escape at Dannemora” and “The Player”). Ruddy will also serve as executive producer, and Emmy-winning producer Leslie Greif (“Hatfields & McCoys”) will executive produce and be a writer on the series....

It involved a pair of pointy ears. Alley appeared as the Vulcan Lt. Saavik in 1982’s “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” and it was a role so beloved that fans wanted Paramount to bring it back for the next film. She had different ideas. But you can see why she made an impression: The movie opens with a simulation every potential Starfleet captain must endure as a test before getting their shot at the command seat — the Kobayashi Maru....

Where to Watch “Roy Wood Jr.: Imperfect Messenger”: Comedy Central Roy Wood Jr. doesn’t start off “Imperfect Messenger” with any grand pronouncements. His newest Comedy Central special has no booming introduction, just him on stage with everything mostly dimmed. As the lights start to come up, he makes an oblique nod to the idea that the last two years have been suboptimal for a lot of folks. But this isn’t a 2020 recap....

Earlier: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Thursday that its Board of Governors voted to present the annual Honorary Awards to Samuel L. Jackson, Elaine May, and Liv Ullmann. The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award will be given to Danny Glover. The four Oscar statuettes will be presented at the Academy’s 12th annual Governors Awards on Saturday, January 15, 2022, in Los Angeles. Academy President David Rubin summed up the recipients’ impact, cinematic and otherwise, in the following statement: “Sam Jackson is a cultural icon whose dynamic work has resonated across genres and generations and audiences worldwide, while Elaine May’s bold, uncompromising approach to filmmaking, as a writer, director and actress, reverberates as loudly as ever with movie lovers....

Bergman’s Swedish original was condensed from its original six parts to a theater-friendly, three-hour movie in 1974 for its American release. Bergman based the saga on his own experiences, including his longtime relationship with muse and partner Ullmann, to whom he was married from 1965 to 1970. Isaac last teamed with HBO on the limited series “Show Me a Hero” in 2015, which earned him a Golden Globe award. His upcoming projects include roles in Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” reboot and Paul Schrader’s “The Card Counter....

In the middle of all this noise, Netflix has remained silent. The studio is sitting out the festival circuit this year, but appears to have plenty of Oscar hopefuls in the pipeline, such as David Fincher’s “Mank” and Charlie Kaufman’s “I’m Thinking of Ending Things.” In this week’s Screen Talk, Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson explore that strategy, as well as how the company became the new standard-bearer in Hollywood....

Shot on the streets of New York and within its subterranean corridors, the short hearkens back to classic New York cinema from the ’70s. The film was produced by Prodject in creative collaboration with Superprime. “This project has honestly been one of the most creatively cathartic experiences I have worked on. This is our crazy love letter to New York City and I hope audiences have as much fun watching as we had making it,” Baker said....

While Stan is best known to most mainstream movie fans as Marvel’s Winter Solider aka Bucky Barnes (current MCU appearance tally: five starring roles in feature films, two cameo appearances, one voice role in the series “What If…?,” one starring role in the series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”), the actor’s career extends far beyond the superhero fray. When he’s not battling crime and inner turmoil on a global scale, Stan has built up an enviable body of work, including films from Karyn Kusama, Antonio Campos, Steven Soderbergh, Ridley Scott, and the late Jonathan Demme....

The upcoming film, co-written by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken, and while the duo (complete with Gosling’s bleach-blond locks), are the textbook images of Mattel-made perfection, they are just two of the many, many versions of Barbies and Kens in the “Barbie” universe. Kate McKinnon, America Ferrera, Will Ferrell, Issa Rae, Michael Cera, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Ncuti Gatwa, Hari Nef, Nicola Coughlan, and Emerald Fennell also are among the massive ensemble cast....

The sketch ends, like the movie “The Shining,” by zooming in on a black-and-white photograph, with Rudolph inserted among the show’s original cast members of yore including Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, and more. Throughout the night’s episode, Rudolph reprised some of her most iconic portrayals, including Beyonce (suffering through an episode of “Hot Ones” while eating diabolically hot chicken wings) and, of course, Vice President Kamala Harrris....

The website Arirang Meari published an article about the Korean-language Netflix hit, which since launching on September 17 has become the most popular series ever to debut on the platform. The website praises the show’s vision of South Korea as a place where “corruption and immoral scoundrels are commonplace” in an “unequal society where people are treated like chess pieces.” The show is the story of 456 South Koreans facing insurmountable debt who vie in deadly challenges, modeled after children’s schoolyard games, to garner a prize of $38 million (or 45....