The ‘Twilight’ star portrayed the ‘To Catch a Predator’ host in the A24 thriller

© Getty

Dornan will play Aragorn in ‘The Hunt for Gollum’

© Getty

The ‘Shakespeare in Love’ star says she’s always been intrigued by one of the Bard’s characters

© AFP/Getty

Charges against him are unclear after return to Iran despite being sentenced last year for ‘propaganda activities’

An Iranian court has handed the award-winning film director Jafar Panahi a new prison sentence of five years and one month and ordered the seizure of all his assets.

The 66-year-old, who won the Palme d’Or at Cannes last year for It Was Just an Accident, was sentenced in absentia, his lawyer, Mostafa Nili, told the Iranian news outlet Emtedad. The court also imposed a two-year travel ban and barred him from using social media for two years, Nili said.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Carlos Álvarez/Getty Images

© Photograph: Carlos Álvarez/Getty Images

© Photograph: Carlos Álvarez/Getty Images

‘The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping’ comes to theaters November 20

© Getty

Rogen played a bully in his first-ever film role in the 2001 cult classic

© Getty Images

Pearson’s stroke of bad luck might have helped him win role opposite Scarlett Johansson

© AFP/Getty

December is when streaming companies bring out the really big guns, but November is no wimp when it comes to major releases.

Today we are taking a look at what’s coming to streaming next month, so grab your comfy blanket, put the kettle on and let’s dive right in!

The Greatest – Prime Video (November 4)

The life of legendary boxer Muhammad Ali has been immortalised on screen before, but The Greatest casts a wider net and covers his whole life in detail over an eight-episode series.

Starring Jaalen Best as the legendary boxer, The Greatest follows the transformation of a young Cassius Clay into Muhammad Ali, exploring his struggles both inside and outside the ring.

A major plus for the series is the involvement of Michael B Jordan, who serves as executive producer.

Stick (Season 2) – Apple TV (November 4)

Guys, at this point I would watch anything released by Apple TV. A-ny-thing. I don’t know what’s happening over there, but their creative team is firing on all cylinders and it’s a wonder to behold.

Owen Wilson returns as Pryce ‘Stick’ Cahill, the washed-up golfer who, during season one, rediscovers his love for the sport by mentoring a young prodigy.

Wilson, who I strongly believe was born to play this part, now eyes his own comeback in season two, as he decides to return to professional golf and take a shot at winning the US Open.

Timothy Olyphant and the always welcome Marc Maron return, and to make the whole thing even better, Rhea Seehorn joins the cast as Pryce’s new coach. What more do you want?

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Season 3) – Prime Video (November 11)

One does not simply walk into Mordor. Because it is currently under construction.

Amazon’s ambitious Tolkien adaptation returns for its third season, taking place five years after the fall of Eregion.

Sauron’s armies are spreading across Middle Earth, the Elves are fighting desperately to resist him and the Dark Lord is preparing to forge the One Ring.

Morfydd Clark returns as Galadriel, alongside Charlie Vickers as Sauron and Robert Aramayo as Elrond.

The season also introduces Jamie Campbell Bower, of Stranger Things fame, as Galadriel’s partner Celeborn, and Simon Pegg as the voice of the Balrog.

Guarding Stars – Netflix (November 18)

“Supernatural” star Jared Padalecki stars as Jack Stapleton, a famous action movie star who is in need of a new bodyguard. Leighton Meester is the reluctant professional who begrudgingly takes on the assignment and follows her client to his family ranch in Montana.

It is cheesy and predictable, so everything you want from a Christmas movie. Just what the doctor ordered for those cold winter nights to warm your heart!

The Altruists – Netflix (November 19)

Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison were among the biggest names in cryptocurrency, and they were making billions before most people had caught up with this new thing.

By 2022, their empire had collapsed. Both eventually ended up in prison, with Bankman-Fried ordered to forfeit $11 billion.

The Altruists dramatises this extraordinary story of love and fraud over eight episodes. Honestly, given how crazy the whole story was, I doubt that the writers had to do any writing at all. Sometimes real life is far more bizarre and outrageous than anything a writers’ room can come up with.

Steps – Netflix (November 20)

There are always two sides to every story. For years we have been listening only to Cinderella’s side of the story, one that painted her stepsisters as evil.

Are they, though?

Ali Wong stars as Lilith, one of Cinderella’s misunderstood stepsisters, who embarks on an adventure to save the kingdom after she accidentally plunges everything into chaos.

Blade Runner 2099 – Prime Video (November 25)

One of science fiction’s most celebrated franchises makes the jump to television.

Set 50 years after the events of “Blade Runner 2049”, this eight-part limited series returns viewers to a futuristic Los Angeles where the distinction between humans and artificial beings remains dangerously blurred.

Hunter Schafer stars as Cora, a fugitive who assumes the identity of a Blade Runner, while Michelle Yeoh plays Olwen, a replicant approaching the end of her life.

Original Blade Runner director Ridley Scott serves as executive producer.

The Hunchback, Soul of Paris – Netflix (November 27)

Having read Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, I was always amazed by Hollywood’s lighthearted approach to the source material. The actual book is dark and heart-wrenching. There are no happy endings for anyone and definitely no singing gargoyles.

This film apparently decides to stick closer to the spirit of the novel, taking a far darker approach to Victor Hugo’s legendary character. I say “spirit” because the plot looks like a total deviation.

Set in Paris in 1830, against the backdrop of political unrest and a devastating cholera epidemic, the film follows a disfigured man hunted by authorities who want to use him for medical experiments.

Vincent Cassel the titular character.

Panahi returned to Iran earlier this year after the start of US and Israeli attacks on the nation

© AFP/Getty

Fox replaced Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly weeks into production of the 1985 film

© Universal

Carrie-Anne Moss starred in all of the Matrix films as Trinity

Chair of membership council says legal advice obtained at own expense suggests offences could have been committed

Bafta trustees may have breached charity and company law by accepting free tickets for guests at the organisation’s awards ceremonies, the chair of its membership council has claimed.

Michael Pritchett told members at Bafta’s annual general meeting that legal advice obtained at his own expense suggested offences could have been committed by trustees who approved the charity’s accounts, which stated that no trustees had received remuneration or benefits.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: London Entertainment/Alamy

© Photograph: London Entertainment/Alamy

© Photograph: London Entertainment/Alamy

Actor has previously said online comments about his appearance has made him reluctant to leave his home

© Getty

Charlie Weasley, who appeared for just over a second in the films, will be played by Harry Gilby on the HBO show

© HBO

‘It gives you a comparison of Elizabeth before and Elizabeth after, which I think is interesting in and of itself,’ says Errol Morris

© A24

Oozing panache and bagging awards already, La Bola Negra is an eye-popping war and prejudice epic starring Penélope Cruz in a blond wig and Glenn Close speaking Spanish. We meet the ex-lovers who dreamed it up

When Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo – the directing duo known in their native Spain as “Los Javis” – began writing their queer epic La Bola Negra, they weren’t thinking about whether it would be stylish (which it is) or win numerous awards (which it has) or capture what they refer to as “the anti-fascist zeitgeist” (which it does). Instead, they thought only of scale. “I’m done with LGBTQ+ movies being niche,” says Ambrossi. “I was like, ‘Let’s make the biggest, gayest war movie ever.’” Job done.

At Cannes this year, the best director prize was awarded jointly to them and to Paweł Pawlikowski, who made the Thomas Mann road trip film Fatherland. La Bola Negra is now an Oscars frontrunner, with best picture and best director nominations all but guaranteed. Brimming with panache, the movie darts back and forth between three stories set in Spain: in 1932, a young man applying for membership of an exclusive casino is rejected on the grounds of his suspected homosexuality; in 1937, a callow nationalist soldier develops tender feelings for the injured republican prisoner under his watch; and in 2017, a queer historian inherits an unfinished story by Federico García Lorca. That story lends the movie its title and provides the thread that sews its strands together.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

© Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

© Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

An appeals court has rejected the defense's argument that Masterson's conviction should be reversed for nearly a dozen reasons

© AFP/Getty

‘Borat’ creator worked with the ‘Nathan For You’ star on the 2018 political satire ‘Who is America?’

© Getty Images

Harry Potter star’s new biography confirms that he was diagnosed with dementia

© Warner Bros

‘Whenever I watch the movie and see that scene, I still feel that pang in my heart,’ the actor wrote in his new memoir

© Getty