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Season Three Of ‘Serial’ Is Headed To HBO

"The third season of the award-winning podcast, which arguably set in motion the current boom for non-fiction audio series, was set in the Cleveland justice system. Unlike the first two seasons, which featured one case, it looked at the system overall." HBO's adaptation, a limited series, will focus on one Cleveland police officer and the young man he's accused...

Pakistan’s Submission For This Year’s Oscars Is Banned In Pakistan

The director, Sarmad Khoosat, is (or was) a popular member of one of the country's most beloved entertainment families; the film itself, Zindagi Tamasha (in English, Circus of Life), has been approved by three different boards of censors and a committee of senators, and it won a big prize at one of Asia's most important film festivals. But, based...

Hollywood Waits With Its Blockbusters. Streaming Is Still A Risky Path

Even as the studio insists that its streaming strategy is a one-off response to the pandemic, it might not be able to rebuild those bridges. Seeing the backlash is just another reason the rest of the industry’s major players continue to hold off from anything so drastic. Patience is hard, but it’s Hollywood’s surest path to profitability. - The...

Cable TV Cord-Cutting Accelerates During Pandemic

In the interim, expect a flood of cable programming to start migrating over to streaming in anticipation for the day when cable is no longer a viable platform for networks to reach audiences. - Axios

Making Film That’s Both Political And Personal

Fernanda Valadez and Astrid Rondero, who directed and wrote the new film Identifying Features, "don’t believe Mexican storytellers have the luxury of creating apolitically. Not at a moment in history when thousands disappear or are murdered as a consequence of drug-related violence and the widespread state complicity that enables it. Neither of them set out to make movies with...

Spike Lee Gives Fiery Speech Comparing Trump To Hitler

Lee's speech for the New York Film Critics Circle Awards was filmed on January 6 - the day when insurrectionists broke into the U.S. Capitol Building, hunting legislators and raiding offices. "We’re at the crossroads now. And everyone please be safe, this is not a game. These people have guns with ammunition. ... This president, President Agent Orange, will go...

Totally Reimagining The Sundance Festival For Its Pandemic Year

Director Tabitha Jackson was lucky in 2020 - her hiring was big news at last year's Sundance Film Festival. Then, of course, a global pandemic hit. "To say her inaugural year heading the most influential film festival in America was rife with unpredictable challenges is an understatement." - Los Angeles Times

What We Expect From Revenge Fantasies

And what Emerald Fennell delivers - which is something different - in Promising Young Woman. "How do you write a revenge movie that feels like something real and that is based in real trauma and grief? Because I suppose the other thing with the revenge that we don’t talk about very much is revenge and vengeance aren’t good...

AMC’s CEO Thinks He Can Save Movie Theatres

Or at least AMC, despite its debt load and the damage from the coronavirus shutdowns. Adam Aron: "Some of my competitors, the ones caught up in the past, are saying that I’m the worst human being alive on the planet. ... But sometimes you have to stare change in the face, recognize that it has or soon will arrive,...

Whiners Didn’t Like A New Star Wars Host’s Support Of Black Lives Matter

The official Star Wars account (and thus, Disney) is backing its Star Wars: The High Republic Show host Krystina Arielle, a Black woman who tweeted last summer in support of Black Lives Matter. - BBC

Turns Out Netflix Has A Vice President Of Inclusion Strategy

That's a long way to say the global creator and distributor of streaming (and don't forget DVD) content wants, and needs, to diversify the voices making its content. That's where Vernā Myers comes in. - Los Angeles Times

Hollywood Rediscovers The Limited Series

Once thought of as a relic of yesteryear, the limited series—or miniseries, depending on which generation you belong to—has rapidly shifted back into focus. - Fast Company

Georgia Towns Sue Netflix To Make Them Pay Cable Fees

Three municipalities in Georgia are suing Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming video providers for as much as 5 percent of their gross revenue in the district — joining a nationwide group of towns and counties that want these services regulated more like cable TV. It’s a small but growing front in the war over cord-cutting, challenging regulators to decide...

Cannes Film Festival 2021 Will Happen, But May Be Postponed To July

"With the Cannes Lions still on track to run June 21-25, it’s feasible that the Cannes Film Festival could be assembled in time to roll out in early July. One industry insider says it would take only a few days or roughly a week to set up the film festival." - Variety

When They Make A Movie About Your Wife’s Illness And Death, And Critics Hate It

Journalist Matthew Teague made his career covering war and disaster zones, but it was a longform essay for Esquire about his wife's terminal cancer that got him a National Magazine Award, legions of new fans, and a movie deal. "What he didn' account for was just how cruel Hollywood can be when a movie does come together, an experience...

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