Tag: cinema

BY BRIAN DAVIDS From a certain point of view, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare star Eiza González may have just played the original real-life Bond girl. Ungentlemanly Warfare, the first of González’s three Guy Ritchie movies to hit theaters, is loosely based on the recently declassified Operation Postmaster, chronicling Winston Churchill’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) and their covert mission to neutralize Nazi Germany’s U-boats during World War II. The efforts of these unauthorized commandos and spies helped change the course of the war, allowing the United States to then join the European Theater of Operations in 1942.  In the action-thriller, González plays Marjorie Stewart, a talented soldier-spy who’s equally gifted as a performer. Together with ...

BY BORYS KIT Paramount Pictures has renewed its first-look deal with Lindsey Anderson Beer and her production banner Lab Brew. In re-upping the deal, the studio has also picked up Here Comes the Dark, a supernatural thriller spec script by Shane and Carey Van Dyke, the duo who co-wrote the 2022 thriller Don’t Worry Darling. Anderson Beer and Lab Brew will produce. Paramount’s renewal is a vote of confidence in Anderson Beer, who wrote and made her feature directorial debut with the horror movie Pet Sematary: Bloodline for the studio last year. The movie debuted as the No. 1 title on Paramount+ and quickly broke the streamer’s record for the most-watched Paramount+ original movie within the first 30 days of a film’s release in the U.S. Anderson Be...

By Mike Fleming Jr, Zac Ntim The ancient Scottish town of St Andrews was hit with a heavy bout of Spidey fever this past weekend as the third annual Sands International Film Festival opened, pulling in an eclectic set of films, filmmakers, and speakers alongside one popular guest of honor.  Spider-Man actor Tom Holland, also known for The Impossible, Cherry, and The Devil All the Time passed through the fest, which opened with a screening of Last Call, a short project he leads with Lindsay Duncan (Blackbird) that was co-written and directed by his brother, Harry Holland. The Holland brothers also took part in the first annual Sands golf tournament, which will continue as part of the festival’s wider activities. It was on the...

BY ZOE G PHILLIPS Lourdes Portillo, the prominent Mexican filmmaker and social activist behind The Devil Never Sleeps and the Oscar-nominated Las Madres – The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, has died. She was 80. Portillo died at her home in San Francisco on Saturday, her friend Soco Aguilar told The Hollywood Reporter. She was surrounded by her three sons and younger sister. A cause was not given. Portillo worked as a writer, director, producer, activist and journalist to create work that centered Latin American and Mexican stories. Las Madres – The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, released in 1985, highlighted the mothers of Argentinian desaparecidos holding weekly protests in Buenos Aires’ Plaza de Mayo during Argentina’s military dictatorship. The documenta...