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Though Mantello was just five years old when “Boys” first premiered Off-Broadway, it’s William Friedkin’s controversial 1970 film version that later introduced him to Crowley’s eye-opening vision of gay life. “I went to North Carolina School of the Arts, and I saw it for the first time there, probably early on when I was a sophomore, and I found it terrifying, but I also loved it,” Mantello, a New Yorker, said in a phone interview from his quarantine hideaway in Palm Springs....

“The Punisher” star told GQ that he is still surprised to be cast in Showtime’s “American Gigolo” series, based on Paul Schrader’s 1980 film about a male escort who is framed for murder. Richard Gere originally played the role, which instantly made Gere an icon (and was notorious for showing full-frontal, albeit brief, male nudity in a mainstream movie). “I do not believe that I possess any kind of natural sex appeal,” Bernthal said....

In a career-spanning interview with New York Magazine, Whedon attempts to tell his own story and combat allegations of abuse and toxicity that have followed him since a 2017 open letter was released by his ex-wife, Kai Cole. In the interview, Whedon discusses his time working as showrunner of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and simultaneously refutes allegations presented by former actors, including “Angel” star Charisma Carpenter, and admits to numerous affairs both during his marriage and after....

King, directing only his second feature film, deftly handles the complex script he co-wrote with Will Berson from a story by the Lucas brothers, Keith and Kenneth, one that layers time, place, perspective, and mood. Set in a richly imagined late-’60s Chicago, “Judas and the Black Messiah” opens with Stanfield as William O’Neal, attempting to unpack his misdeeds via a careful recreation of his own televised interview. King’s film blends together both that recreation — and one featuring Kaluuya as Chairman Fred — with actual archival footage to lay out the scene....

Amini died in police custody on September 16 after being arrested for not properly wearing her hijab to fully cover her hair. Iranian police said she died of a heart attack, but eyewitnesses claim she was beaten to death. Women around the world have since cut a lock of their hair with #HairForFreedom to show their support for Amini and in solidarity with Iranian women living under the Islamic Republic’s strict theocratic rule....

The Annie Murphy-starring AMC series “Kevin Can F**k Himself” hinges on an interesting gimmick: What if a woman was the wife of a sitcom character, but in her moments alone she was just an average woman desperate to leave a dying, toxic marriage? Season 1 focused heavily on this conceit, with Allison McRoberts (Murphy) desperate to kill her bumbling, one-note sitcom stereotype husband Kevin (Eric Petersen) in order to free herself....

“Shang-Chi” has been bombarded with nationalist complaints for months now because of the character Fu Manchu, who is Shang-Chi’s father and primary nemesis in the comic books. Fu Manchu has been widely seen through the years as being racist and an embodiment of the Yellow Peril stereotype. Feige stressed that Fu Manchu is not involved in the film in any capacity. While Shang-Chi’s father is a major role in the movie played by Tony Leung, the character is not Fu Manchu....

“The CPS has authorized criminal charges against Kevin Spacey, 62, for four counts of sexual assault against three men,” Rosemary Ainslie, head of the CPS Special Crime Division, said, as reported by ABC News. “He has also been charged with causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent. The charges follow a review of the evidence gathered by the Metropolitan Police in its investigation.” Ainslie continued, “The Crown Prosecution Service reminds all concerned that criminal proceedings against Mr....

Johnson has worked with his cousin Rian on several features, including “Brick,” “Looper,” and “Knives Out,” and the close relationship affords the composer opportunities that not many in his field get. “Usually composers are brought in at the last minute, or when the movie’s pretty much done,” he told IndieWire. “Rian brings me on before he’s even finished writing the script, so I get the giddy pleasure of hearing him talk about his ideas and then he sends me the script....

Stewart, who has starred in films from directors like David Fincher and Woody Allen, said that choosing roles can be a “total crapshoot.” She added, “I’ve probably made five really good films out of 45 or 50 films? Ones that I go, ‘Wow, that person made a top-to-bottom beautiful piece of work!’” When asked what films she counts among her best, she cited the films of Olivier Assayas, for whom she starred in “Personal Shopper” and “Clouds of Sils Maria,” which made her the first American actress to win a Cesar, the French equivalent of an Academy Award, for her supporting turn....

Which is why the 2020 Outfest Film Festival is more exciting than ever, with drive-ins, a streaming platform, and plenty of world premieres. In this year’s lineup, 70 percent of the films are directed by women or filmmakers of color. Beginning August 20 and lasting for 11 days, the films will be available to stream via Vimeo’s OTT platform. In addition, the festival will host six nights of drive-in screenings at “Outfest LA Under the Stars,” which takes place at Calamigos Ranch in Malibu....

The director began principal photography on “Old,” which centers on a vacationing family at an isolated beach that mysteriously causes them to rapidly age over the course of a day, in September in the Dominican Republic. Shyamalan noted that everyone in the cast and crew avoided becoming ill with the coronavirus by effectively quarantining themselves. “There were a couple times that I was on the verge of tears, but I guess I covered it well,” he said during the event, which was moderated by his “Old” star Alex Wolff....

Subsequent films including “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” continued to draw massive returns, but many fans feel Marvel does not have a singular star to serve as the franchise’s leader. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige disagrees. Feige passed the torch to Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange this week while speaking at Cumberbatch’s Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony, (via Variety), praising Cumberbatch’s role in the MCU and emphasizing the actor’s importance to Marvel’s future....

Like many other well-reviewed films at Cannes, a robust theatrical future is by no means assured for this old-fashioned ’70s-’80s father-daughter story, which marks Penn’s first time acting in his own film, after helming six features. Thanks to Matt Damon, Penn said at Sunday’s press conference, the Oscar winner (“Milk,” “Mystic River”) finally decided to break his own rule not to do two jobs at once. “A month and half before shooting started, Matt Damon called me, not to say he could or couldn’t, but that I was a stupid schmuck not to take this opportunity to act with my daughter in this thing,” said Penn....

In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter this week, released in anticipation of Rudolph’s new Apple TV+ series “Loot,” Rudolph talks about roles she’s turned down. One was the title role in the BBC dark comedy created by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Rudolph said she was offered the role and would have immediately done it. “But there was no way I was about to move to Europe for months. Like, how?...

During her performance of her number-one hit “Savage,” Megan and her dancers paused while an edited version of a 1962 speech by Malcolm X played: “The most disrespected, unprotected, neglected person in America is the Black woman.” The interlude continued with more recordings of Malcom X and activist Tamika Mallory. Megan used a segment from recent comments made by Mallory, an organizer of the 2017 Women’s March, about Cameron, who is Black: “Daniel Cameron is no different than the sellout negroes that sold our people into slavery....

Jordan wrote that he would “dedicate the rest of my days to live the way you did” and praised Boseman’s kindness in his Instagram post. Jordan is one of numerous creatives who have posted tributes for Boseman, who also starred in hit films such as “Da 5 Bloods,” “42,” and “Get on Up.” “Black Panther” filmmaker Ryan Coogler posted a tribute to Boseman on Sunday, while Jordan Peele, Lena Waithe, and “Avengers” co-star Mark Ruffalo shared tributes last Friday....

Past Milestone Award winners include 2022 recipients George Lucas and Kathleen Kennedy, plus Hollywood legends like Louis B. Mayer, Walt Disney, and Alfred Hitchcock, as well as current power players like Steven Spielberg, Bob Iger, James Cameron, Ted Sarandos, Donna Langley, and Brian Grazer and Ron Howard. “Michael and Pam are an incredible team, excelling as both trusted creative producers and successful studio heads,” Producers Guild of America Presidents Stephanie Allain and Donald De Line said in a joint statement....

But the chances of “New Order” getting a wide release quickly sank when backlash began to emerge in Mexico in response to the trailer. Critics were quick to point out perceived racial stereotypes in the film, including that the uprisers were more dark-skinned than the lighter-skinned One Percent, and that the Black Lives Matter-inspired protesters in the film were glibly portrayed as one-note, violent monsters. Something got lost in Franco’s angry commentary about wealth disparity in Mexico — and the world....

This clip, excerpted from early in the film, shows the kind of somnambulant atmosphere Hou conjures. Moments of wordless visual poetry — from this scene to how Hou shoots neon-glimmering club scenes or under-cranks in slow motion a shot of a woman leaning out a sunroof of a car barreling through a tunnel — are punctured by the bitter exchanges between Vicky (Shu Qi) and her boyfriends. There’s the DJ Hao-hao (Tuan Chun-hao) and the gangster Jack (Kao Jack), both of whom cause Vicky trouble....