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Apr302024 by cineverseNo Comments

Blue Lights recap: series two, episode three – sexy, messy affairs

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Michael Hogan The series reached its midway mark with simmering tension and surprise tragedy. Here’s your sit-rep on the third episode, titled Love Knows … Lee’s power grab After the frighteningly efficient hit on the loyalist crime lord Jim Dixon, it was action stations. Extra manpower was deployed in case of reprisals on the Mount Eden estate. Dixie’s arch-rival Davy Hamill (Tony Flynn) was questioned after issuing death threats to Dixie but as his slick lawyer pointed out, the detectives had nothing. So why did the hotshot brief suddenly drop Hamill’s case? Because there was a new player in town. The ambitious publican Lee Thompson (Séamus O’Hara) persuaded the Dublin mob to let him take over Belfast’s entire drug supply. He’s not affiliated to either warring gang but would ...

Apr292024 by cineverseNo Comments

The Sympathizer’: Phanxine on the Major’s Big Moment and His ‘Politically Sensitive’ Decision to Join the Show

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By Selome Hailu SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers for Episode 3 of “The Sympathizer” on HBO. Phanxine isn’t an actor. Or so he says, though one might beg to differ after seeing his performance in “Love It or Leave It,” the third episode of HBO’s “The Sympathizer.” Though he’s no stranger to filmmaking, having directed and produced popular features such as the Vietnamese box office hit “Sweet 20,” Phanxine is a first-time performer. In fact, his involvement in “The Sympathizer” only came together after an audition he attended as a prank — more on that later. Episode 2 saw the General (Toan Le) begin to suspect the presence of a North Vietnamese spy among the South Vietnamese community he began building in Los Angeles after the war, but he’s stil...

Apr292024 by cineverseNo Comments

How ‘The Sympathizer’ Makeup and Hair Artists Believably Transformed Robert Downey Jr. Into Four Different Characters

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By Jazz Tangcay When “The Sympathizer” showrunner and director Park Chan-Wook brainstormed ideas for HBO’s newest miniseries, one scene struck him as a “quintessential American institution and represented the idea of America.” It took place in a steakhouse with several characters coming together. Based on the best-selling novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen and set at the end of the Vietnam War, “The Sympathizer” follows a captain, played by Hoa Xuande, in the South Vietnamese army who’s secretly spying for the North Vietnamese communists. As Saigon falls and the U.S. retreats, the Captain remains embedded and escapes to Los Angeles. Throughout, Robert Downey Jr. pops up as various characters who interact with the Captain including Claude, the Captain’s CIA contact, as well as a professo...

Apr292024 by cineverseNo Comments

Cannes Film Festival Jury: Lily Gladstone, Eva Green, Omar Sy and More Join President Greta Gerwig

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By Ellise Shafer The full Cannes Film Festival competition jury has been revealed. Joining president Greta Gerwig to award this year’s Palme d’Or will be “Killers of the Flower Moon” Oscar nominee Lily Gladstone; “The Three Musketeers” star Eva Green; “Lupin” lead Omar Sy; Ebru Ceylan, who co-wrote the 2014 Palme d’Or winner “Winter Sleep”; director Nadine Labaki, whose “Capernaum” won the Cannes jury prize in 2018; director Juan Antonio Bayona, whose latest film “Society of the Snow” was Oscar-nominated for best international feature; Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino, who will next appear in Pablo Larraìn’s “Maria” alongside Angelina Jolie; and director Kore-eda Hirokazu, director of the 2018 Palme d’Or winner “Shoplifters.” The competition lineup for t...

Apr282024 by cineverseNo Comments

Cannes adds two animations, first Cinema de la Plage titles, Valeria Golino conversation

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BY ELLIE CALNAN Cannes Film Festival (May 14-25) has added a rendez-vouz with Italian actor and filmmaker Valeria Golino to its programme as well as two animated features and the first Cinema de la Plage titles. Golino, whose credits include Rain Man and Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, will premiere the first episode of her new serieshe Art Of Joy followed by an in conversation event. The series, which will screen in Italian cinemas in July, stars Jasmine Trinca, Tecla Insolia and Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi and follows a Sicilian woman in the early 1900s who dreams of a better life. The actor and filmmaker has premiered two of her films at Cannes previously – Honey in 2013 and Euforia in 2019. The festival has also added two titles aimed ...

Apr282024 by cineverseNo Comments

Sony pushes ‘Karate Kid’ into 2025, ‘Kraven The Hunter’ to December

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BY JEREMY KAY Sony Pictures has pushed Karate Kid from December to May 2025 and pushed back Kraven The Hunter to fill the holiday season slot. Karate Kid had been scheduled to open on December 13 of this year and according to sources is being held back in order to follow the sixth and final season of Cobrai Kai, which was delayed due to the strikes. Ben Wang in the title role as Karate Kid, alongside Joshua Jackson, Sadie Stanley, Ming-Na Wen, Aramis Knight, Wyatt Oleff and Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio, who will reprise their characters from te original franchise. Jonathan Entwistle directs from Rob Lieber’s screenplay. Kraven The Hunter, an origins story starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Spider-Man’s eventual nemesis, has been pushe...

Apr282024 by cineverseNo Comments

Britney Spears settles legal dispute with estranged father, bringing ultimate end to conservatorship

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ByElizabeth Wagmeister Britney Spears has reached a settlement with her estranged father more than two years after the court-ordered termination of a conservatorship that had given him control of her life, their attorneys said. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed by the attorneys for the pop star and her father, who confirmed the settlement to CNN. The video in the player above is from a previous report. "It has been our honor and privilege to represent, protect, and defend Britney Spears," the singer's attorney, Mathew Rosengart, said in a statement to CNN. "Ms. Spears is and always will be an icon and a brilliant and brave artist of historic and epic proportion," Rosengart's statement continued. "Although the conservatorship was terminated in November 2021, her ...