Michelle McCue

Jennifer Hudson And Mary J. Blige Shine In First Trailer For Aretha Franklin Biopic RESPECT

Following the rise of Aretha Franklin’s career from a child singing in her father’s church’s choir to her international superstardom, RESPECT is the remarkable true story of the music icon’s journey to find her voice.

Director Liesl Tommy makes her feature film debut with Respect. Tommy is the first Black woman ever nominated for a Tony award for Best Direction of a Play in 2016 for Eclipsed, and is an Associate Artist at the Berkeley Rep and an Artist Trustee with the Sundance Institute’s Board of Trustees.

Check out the first trailer starring Jennifer Hudson, Forest Whitaker, Marlon Wayans, Audra McDonald, Marc Maron, Tituss Burgess, Saycon Sengbloh, Hailey Kilgore, Skye Dakota Turner, Tate Donovan, and Mary J. Blige. See the film this December.

This is going to be fantastic! Jennifer Hudson has previously won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for DREAMGIRLS! She was also awarded a Golden Globe, BAFTA Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award for her role as Effie White in the film.

Time for the two-time Grammy award winner to clear a space for another Oscar Statuette.

This is sure to be an Oscar contender next year. Bet on Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Hudson (Best Actress), Mary J. Blige (Supporting Actress), Forest Whitaker (Supporting Actor) and hopefully for director Liesl Tommy, and possibly cinematography, production design, costume and hair & makeup.

Jennifer Hudson stars as Aretha Franklin and Mary J. Blige as Dinah Washington in RESPECT A Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film Photo credit: Quantrell D. Colbert / © 2020 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved

Actor Jennifer Hudson and director Liesl Tommy on the set of RESPECT A Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film Photo credit: Quantrell D. Colbert / © 2020 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved

(ctr) Marlon Wayans stars as Ted White and Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin in RESPECT A Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film Photo credit: Quantrell D. Colbert / © 2020 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved

With a story by Callie Khouri (Oscar ® winner for Thelma & Louise) and Tracey Scott Wilson, and screenplay written by Tracey Scott Wilson. Wilson and Tommy have worked together creatively since the 2009 play The Good Negro written by Wilson, directed by Tommy at The Public Theatre. Wilson was a writer on FX’s The Americans which garnered her a Peabody Award as well as Emmy and WGA Award nominations.

Jennifer Hudson stars as Aretha Franklin and Forest Whitaker as her father C.L. Franklin in RESPECT A Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film Photo credit: Quantrell D. Colbert / © 2020 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved

Instagram: @RespectMovie

Twitter: @RespectMovie

Facebook: @RespectFilm

Mark Rylance, Johnny Depp And Robert Pattinson Star In First Trailer For WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS – On Demand August 7

Samuel Goldwyn Films has released the first trailer to Ciro Guerra’s feature film WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS. The film stars Academy Award Winner Mark Rylance, Academy Award Nominee Johnny Depp, Robert Pattinson, and Greta Scacchi. WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS will be released on cable On-Demand & Digital platforms August 7.

The Magistrate (Mark Rylance) of an isolated frontier settlement on the border of an unnamed empire looks forward to an easy retirement until the arrival of Colonel Joll (Johnny Depp), whose task it is to report on the activities of the ‘barbarians’ and on the security situation on the border. Joll conducts a series of ruthless interrogations, which leads the Magistrate to question his loyalty to the empire.

WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS was directed by Ciro Guerra (his first English Language film) and written by Nobel Prize winning author J.M. Coetzee, who adapted the screenplay from his own novel. Two-time Academy Award winner Chris Menges was the cinematographer. The film was produced by Michael Fitzgerald, Olga Segura, Andrea Iervolino of Iervolino Entertainment, and Monika Bacardi with executive producers Sir Martin Franklin, Cristina Gallego, Danielle Maloni, Deborah Dobson Bach, and Penelope Glass.

AMBI Distribution, the worldwide sales arm of Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi’s AMBI Media Group, announced today a slew of major international territory sales for “Waiting for the Barbarians” during the Virtual Cannes market. The film has been acquired in Germany (Constantin Film), France (SND), UK (The Movie Partnership), CIS (Paradise), Middle East (Falcon Films), CEE (Vertical, Monolith and Blitz Films), Indonesia (Artist View) and Taiwan (Cai Chang International).

2020 ASCAP Screen Music Award Winners Include Hans Zimmer, Pinar Toprak And Lorne Balfe

ASCAP raises the curtain on its second virtual celebration of annual award winners today through June 25, recognizing its top film, television and video game composers as recipients of 2020 ASCAP Screen Music Awards.

The accolades will take place with the hashtag #ASCAPAwards on ASCAP’s Facebook, Twitter, and on Instagram @ASCAP and @ASCAPScreen. Each winner will be honored in a post that enables fans, friends and peers to join in congratulating the music creators that bring their favorite onscreen entertainment to life. ASCAP will share exclusive photos and videos from the winning composers — and special celebrity guests — as part of the event.

Top Box Office Film goes to Hans Zimmer for The Lion King.

Other Top Box Office winners include Pinar Toprak (Captain Marvel), who will appear on video on ASCAP social media providing a tour of her home studio, and Lorne Balfe (Gemini Man), who created a special video documenting the receipt of his award.

When you unexpectedly receive an #ASCAPScreen Music Award…. Congrats to @Lornebalfe on winning for @GeminiManMovie! #ASCAPAwards pic.twitter.com/ldeak2ef2J
— ASCAP (@ASCAP) June 23, 2020

David Vanacore, the top winner in the Most Performed Themes and Underscore category and whose work includes music for CBS’s Survivor and NBC’s Deal or No Deal, will accept his award on video and receive special shout-outs from the shows’ hosts Jeff Probst and Howie Mandel. Other Most Performed Themes and Underscore winners were Michael Giacchino, Cat Gray, Jared Gutstadt, Russell Howard, Didier Lean Rachou, Ed Robertson, Mark Snow, Hans Zimmer andASCAP composer Board member Joel Beckerman, who will express gratitude for his award by video.Actor Dennis Quaid will appear by video in a personal congratulatory message for Gutstadt, with whom he collaborates on the Bear and a Banjo podcast.

The Top Network Television Series Award is presented to Siddhartha Khosla who will accept his award for NBC’s This Is Us by video. Also winning in the Top Television Series category and expected to appear by video are ASCAP composer Board members Dan Foliart for The Conners and Bruce Broughton for The Orville. Composer Ruth Barrett will accept the award for Top Cable Television Series for PBS’s Victoria with a celebratory video message for all her collaborators.

The ASCAP Composers’ Choice Awards, voted on exclusively by the ASCAP composer and songwriter community, are presented to John Powell for Film Score of the Year for How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World; to Bear McCreary for TV Composer of the Year; and to Gordy Haab for Video Game Score of the Year for his work on Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order. Haab, McCreary and Powell will all thank their peers by video on @ASCAP social media.

ASCAP Chairman of the Board and President Paul Williams has provided a video introduction to this year’s ASCAP Screen Awards: “…The more I watch and listen, the more I believe that screen music today is the best it’s ever been… Congratulations to all of this year’s winners for your wonderful musical achievements. We are faced with a challenging moment right now. But we believe that your music — and the stories accompanied by it — will meet this moment by giving us hope, and inspiring change.”

On June 25, ASCAP will also host special programming on ASCAP Experience: Home Edition with two of its top 2020 Screen Awards winners: “Maverick: Hans Zimmer in Conversation with Mitchell Leib,” Walt Disney Studios’ head of music; and “This Is Us: A Conversation with Siddhartha Khosla.” The latter panel will feature Khosla with Chris Sullivan, who plays Toby on This Is Us and is also a musician/singer-songwriter.

The complete list of 2020 ASCAP Screen Music Award winners is available at: www.ascap.com/screenawards20.

Disney+ To Premiere HAMILTON Film Globally July 3, 2020

Get ready music fans! Disney+ has debuted the trailer for “Hamilton,” the filmed version of the original Broadway production, ahead of its global premiere on the streaming service on July 3, 2020.

An unforgettable cinematic stage performance, the filmed version of the original Broadway production of “Hamilton” combines the best elements of live theater, film and streaming to bring the cultural phenomenon to homes around the world for a thrilling, once-in-a-lifetime experience. “Hamilton” is the story of America then, told by America now. Featuring a score that blends hip-hop, jazz, R&B and Broadway, “Hamilton” has taken the story of American founding father Alexander Hamilton and created a revolutionary moment in theatre—a musical that has had a profound impact on culture, politics, and education.

Filmed at The Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway in June of 2016, the film transports its audience into the world of the Broadway show in a uniquely intimate way. With book, music, and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda and direction by Thomas Kail, “Hamilton” is inspired by the book “Alexander Hamilton” by Ron Chernow and produced by Thomas Kail, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeffrey Seller, with Sander Jacobs and Jill Furman serving as executive producers. Filming was produced by RadicalMedia.

The 11-time-Tony Award®-, GRAMMY Award®-, Olivier Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning stage musical stars: Daveed Diggs as Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson; Renée Elise Goldsberry as Angelica Schuyler; Jonathan Groff as King George; Christopher Jackson as George Washington; Jasmine Cephas Jones as Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds; Lin-Manuel Miranda as Alexander Hamilton; Leslie Odom, Jr. as Aaron Burr; Okieriete Onaodowan as Hercules Mulligan/James Madison; Anthony Ramos as John Laurens/Philip Hamilton; and Phillipa Soo as Eliza Hamilton.

THE KING’S MAN New Poster And Trailer Are Here – Scheduled for a Theatrical Release On September 18

Watch the brand-new, action-packed trailer for THE KING’S MAN, scheduled to be in theaters September 18.

As a collection of history’s worst tyrants and criminal masterminds gather to plot a war to wipe out millions, one man must race against time to stop them. Discover the origins of the very first independent intelligence agency in “The King’s Man.”

THE KING’S MAN is directed by Matthew Vaughn and stars Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, Rhys Ifans, Matthew Goode, Tom Hollander, Harris Dickinson, Daniel Brühl, with Djimon Hounsou, and Charles Dance.

Matthew Vaughn, David Reid and Adam Bohling are the producers, and Mark Millar, Dave Gibbons, Stephen Marks, Claudia Vaughn and Ralph Fiennes serve as executive producers. THE KING’S MAN is based on the comic book “The Secret Service” by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons, and the story is by Matthew Vaughn and the screenplay is by Matthew Vaughn & Karl Gajdusek.

https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/the-kings-man

(L-R) Ralph Fiennes as Oxford and Djimon Hounsou as Shola in 20th Century Studios’ THE KING’S MAN. Photo credit: Peter Mountain. © 2020 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

45 Years of JAWS: Welcome to Amity, June 20th, 1975

This was the original tagline of what’s still a perfect film: “JAWS: See It Before You Go Swimming.” 45 years ago this weekend movie goers at their local cinemas were introduced to Bruce, the great white shark. JAWS sits at 98% on Rotten Tomatoes.

In his review Roger Ebert wrote: “Jaws” is a great adventure movie of the kind we don’t get very often any more. It’s clean-cut adventure, without the gratuitous violence of so many action pictures. It has the necessary amount of blood and guts to work — but none extra. And it’s one hell of a good story, brilliantly told.”

The film is streaming on HBO Max as well as it three follow-up movies.

The trailer’s ominous narration said, “There is a creature alive today who has survived millions of years of evolution, without change, without passion and without logic. It lives to kill – a mindless eating machine. It will attack and devour anything. It is as if God created the Devil, and gave him Jaws.”

The characters and the shark are Funko Pop figures that you can find over on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/POP-Movies-Martin-Hooper-Figures/dp/B07P5RH3GS/ref=sr_1_9?dchild=1&keywords=funko+pop+jaws&qid=1592604584&sr=8-9

Read this in-depth article about the film https://musingsofamiddleagedgeek.blog/2020/06/13/jaws-1975-the-movie-that-invented-the-summer-blockbuster-turns-45/

Check out the collection over on MONDO: https://mondoshop.com/collections/jaws

For more on the anniversary check it out over The Daily Jaws https://thedailyjaws.com/jaws-45-year-anniversary

While fans celebrate the 45th anniversary, read my original article from June 2010 posted below.

Martin, it’s all psychological. You yell barracuda, everybody says, “Huh? What?” You yell shark, we’ve got a panic on our hands on the Fourth of July.

June 20, 1975 and the Summer Blockbuster was born. Opening night and I was a 9 year old kid sitting in the theater on the Berlin Turnpike in Newington, CT and scared shitless by what would later become my favorite film of all time. (Hey, that’s how we rolled in my house). After that evening, I became very wary of going down to the shore. 35 years later my love affair with the film is ever passionate and this trailer still manages to give me the creeps!

Being that its Father’s Day, I feel its safe to say that Chief Martin Brody is one of the best film Dads ever!

Winner of 3 Oscars including Best Score (John Williams), Editing (Verna Fields) and Best Sound and nominated for Best Picture (classy AMPAS!), today fans celebrate the 35th anniversary of JAWS. It was the summer movie that put Spielberg officially on the map and scared many, including this Connecticut native, from going swimming in 1975. While being one of the most quoted movies ever, including the memorable, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” and filled with unforgettable scenes, without a doubt Quint’s soliloquy is one of the finest in film history.

For JAWS enthusiasts today, the ultimate retrospective on JAWS is the documentary The Shark is Still Working.

Maybe one of these days I’ll get up the courage to go the FLOATING JAWS SCREENING where you watch JAWS while sitting in an inner tube in the deep, dark Lake Travis … AT NIGHT! Yeah right.

Happy 35th Birthday JAWS so Smile you son of a BITCH!

Actor Ian Holm (ALIEN, CHARIOTS OF FIRE, LORD OF THE RINGS) Dies at 88

ALIEN, LORD OF THE RINGS, THE FIFTH ELEMENT, THE MADNESS OF KING GEORGE, THE SWEET HEREAFTER and CHARIOTS OF FIRE. Moviegoers came to know Ian Holm in these films, along with countless others, and sadly the world of cinema has lost another great actor.

From Reuters:

British actor Ian Holm, best known for his roles in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and “Alien”, has died aged 88, the Guardian newspaper said on Friday.

The actor, who received an Oscar nomination for his performance in the 1981 film “Chariots of Fire”, had died from a Parkinson’s related illness, the paper said.

“It is with great sadness that the actor Sir Ian Holm CBE passed away this morning at the age of 88,” his agent told the paper. “He died peacefully in hospital, with his family and carer. Charming, kind and ferociously talented, we will miss him hugely.”

Holm began his career on stage working as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company and gained international exposure when he was cast as android Ash in the 1979 “Alien” film.

His role as an athletics coach in “Chariots of Fire” won him a British Academy film award (Bafta) and an Oscar nod for Best Supporting Actor, while he played Bilbo Baggins in two of The Lord of the Rings films, a role he reprised in the recent “The Hobbit” film series.

Here’s a look at his work:

THE FIFTH ELEMENT.

THE SWEET HEREAFTER

RETALIATION Starring Orlando Bloom On VOD And Digital July 24

Saban Films has released the trailer for RETALIATION.

Orlando Bloom stars as Malky, a demolition worker whose life receives a seismic shock when, out drinking with friends at a local pub, he sees a disturbing figure from his past: the man he holds responsible for a traumatic childhood incident. Fueled by anger, Malky sets out on a path of vengeance – and discovers that no one can escape the consequences of their sins in this taut thriller.

RETALIATION will be on VOD & Digital July 24.

Jenny Slate, Zach Galifianakis Star In THE SUNLIT NIGHT – Available on VOD on July 17, 2020

The trailer and poster for a new drama called THE SUNLIT NIGHT which stars Jenny Slate and will be releasing on VOD on July 17^th from Quiver Distribution. Also starring Zach Galifianakis and Gillian Anderson, check out the preview below.

THE SUNLIT NIGHT follows an aspiring painter (Slate) from New York City to the farthest reaches of Arctic Norway for an assignment she hopes will invigorate her work and expand her horizons. In a remote village, among the locals, she meets a fellow New Yorker (Sharp), who has come in search of a proper Viking funeral only to find that the Chief (Galifianakis) is but a re-enactor from Cincinnati. The eclectic crew ranges from “home” to “lost,” within the extreme and dazzling landscape of the Far North. Under a sun that never quite sets, and the high standards of an unforgiving mentor, Frances must navigate between ambition, desire, obligation, and risk in order to find a way forward.

Based on the novel by Rebecca Dinerstein Knight, the film is directed by David Wnendt and is his English language debut. The film premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January 2019.

Wnendt made his mark at Sundance 2014 with WETLANDS, an adaptation of Charlotte Roche’s bestselling novel. His next feature LOOK WHO’S BACK, which he adapted from the best-selling satirical novel by Timur Vermes, brought in over $20m at the German box office and had an international release on Netflix.

Wnendt’s powerful debut film – the acclaimed COMBAT GIRLS – tells the story of a young neo-Nazi gang member whose convictions slowly evolve when she meets a young Afghan refugee. The film earned Wnendt the Bavarian Film Award for Best Young Director, the Young German Cinema Award and the Prix Genève-Europe for Best Screenplay.

Here’s A First Look At The Trailer For 2 HEARTS Film Starring Jacob Elordi “Euphoria” And Tiera Skovbye “Riverdale”

Scheduled to open in theaters on September 11 is the film 2 HEARTS. Check out the new trailer now.

For two couples the future unfolds in different decades and different places, but a hidden connection will bring them together in a way no one could have predicted. Based on an inspirational true story, 2 Hearts is a romantic journey that celebrates life, love and generosity of spirit, and challenges audiences to believe miracles are possible.

Charismatic young Australian actor Jacob Elordi (“Euphoria,” “The Kissing Booth”) plays Chris, a college freshman whose love for a spirited classmate played by Tiera Skovbye (“Riverdale,” “Once Upon a Time”) helps him find the purpose he has been searching for. In another place and time, Adan Canto (“Designated Survivor,” “Narcos”) plays Cuban exile Jorge, who falls for well-traveled flight attendant Leslie, played by Radha Mitchell (“Man on Fire,” “The Shack”).

Though they were never meant to meet, fate has something entirely unexpected in store for both couples that dramatically changes the course of their lives.

Visit the site: https://2heartsthefilm.com/

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