The Weeknd and “Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson have teamed up for a new HBO series, “The Idol,” which focuses on a female pop singer who starts a romance with an enigmatic L.A. club owner that happens to be the leader of a secret cult, because what else would you expect from Levinson?

Amid HBO’s announcement of a “new creative direction” on the music industry show, it has led to some prominent crew members exiting.

Continue reading ‘The Idol’: Amy Seimetz Exits HBO Series With Sam Levinson Expected To Take On A Directing Role at The Playlist.

Easing back into moviemaking after the months-long covid shutdown seems like a mighty stressful proposition, and from the looks of the cast and crew credits for “No Sudden Move,” Steven Soderbergh decided to alleviate that stress by surrounding himself with people he knew. It’s a picture chock full of reunions: with his frequent star Don Cheadle, with Cheadle’s “Traffic” co-star Benicio del Toro, with Amy Seimetz (of the “Girlfriend Experience” TV adaptation), with Bill Duke of “High Flying Bird”; even Brendan Fraser was previously directed by Soderbergh, on a wonderful episode of the long-forgotten Showtime anthology series “Fallen Angels.” The script is by Ed Solomon, who penned the director’s HBO series “Mosaic”; the music is by his regular collaborator David Holmes; the producer is Casey Silver, who, as head of Universal Pictures, offered Soderbergh the picture that saved his career, “Out of Sight.” (And, of course, he’s again working with director of photography Peter Andrews and editor Mary Ann Bernard, wink wink.)

READ MORE: Summer 2021 Preview: Over 50 Movies To
Watch

Moreover, he’s revisiting his favorite genre, the crime picture.

Continue reading ‘No Sudden Move’: A Thrilling Yet Thoughtful Throwback From Steven Soderbergh [Tribeca Review] at The Playlist.

Though certain segments of social media might disagree, it’s always a good thing when there are more inclusivity and diversity in the film industry. This is just a fact. More perspectives mean more stories and more interesting films. And thankfully, as a new study points out, in terms of female representation behind the camera, the film industry continues to gain more inclusivity.

READ MORE: The 25 Best Films Of 2020

A new study from San Diego State University claims that the total number of female directors and female filmmakers (in general) grew in 2020 from previous highs in 2019.

Continue reading Female Directors Helmed More Major Films Than Ever Before In 2020 at The Playlist.

YA author Ann Aguirre wrote in her 2008 novel “Grimspace” that “Sometimes you find your heroes in the unlikeliest places.” She certainly meant finding strength in oneself, but it also rings true when it comes to one of the greatest heroes in the fictional realm. Superman isn’t from Earth but look how hard he’s fought and will continue to fight on behalf of the human race. Now, a new good guy is about drop-in, quite similar to the way the Man of Steel made his presence felt.

Continue reading ‘Archenemy’ Trailer: Joe Manganiello Is A Cosmic Crusader Looking To Do Some Good at The Playlist.

We’ve known about Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming film “No Sudden Move” (formerly known as “Kill Switch”) for a while now. Back in November, we first reported on the project with Don Cheadle, Josh Brolin, and Sebastian Stan all in talks to star in the film. But boy, oh boy, what a difference a year and a schedule-smashing pandemic makes. Now, Don Cheadle is set to star in the film, but his supporting cast has been substantially changed.

Continue reading Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Kill Switch’ Becomes ‘No Sudden Move’ & Adds Benicio Del Toro, David Harbour, Julia Fox & More at The Playlist.

While the filmmakers behind Showtime’s two-part “The Comey Rule” have clearly overestimated the public’s desire for— uhhh, gestures in the general direction of anything and everything in entertainment vaguely resembling the Trump Shitshow, any ancillary offshoots (see the Fox News portrait “The Loudest Voice”) and generally, politics in the corrosive age of toxic politics— writer/director Bill Ray’s “The Comey Rule” does open up with a good, if simplistic, bit and intriguing question.

Continue reading ‘The Comey Rule’: Billy Ray’s Showtime Miniseries Is An Intriguing FBI Procedural Until It’s Not [Review] at The Playlist.

Blut und Ehre. It’s German for “Blood and Honor.” Not only that, but the phrase was also utilized as a reprehensible rallying cry for Nazi Germany during World War II and the years before. It was their baseless justification for committal of appalling crimes against humanity. Cinema has—however—provided some microscopic but—nonetheless—cathartic examples of such individuals getting their due comeuppance. Take “The Debt,” “The Odessa File,” “This Must Be The Place,” some scenes in “X-Men: First Class” or all of Amazon’s Nazi-hunting show, “Hunters.” A new movie entitled “The Secrets We Keep” sees another Holocaust survivor granted the opportunity to make the red stuff flow out of the person who tortured her years ago.

Continue reading ‘Secrets We Keep’ Trailer: Noomi Rapace Wants Vengeance On WWII War Criminal Joel Kinnaman at The Playlist.

Uncertainty and anxiety cloud the minds of most people in 2020. With the American political system in chaos, protesting and civil unrest continuing in the streets of major cities, and a global pandemic looming over everything, it’s obvious that people today are always wondering what the next existential threat awaits around the corner. In this sense, the release of Amy Seimetz’s newest feature, “She Dies Tomorrow,” couldn’t come at a better time, with its story of anxiety and mistrust.

Continue reading ‘She Dies Tomorrow’ Exclusive Music: Listen To A New Track From The Score To Amy Seimetz’s Thriller at The Playlist.

Ideas are contagious, like a virus, Christopher Nolan posited, coldly and conceptually, back in 2010 with “Inception.” In 2020, filmmaker Amy Seimetz takes that a few steps further with an emotional edge and the presciently eerie idea of infectious diseases that will spread and kill you as thoughts. In her feature-length sophomore feature, “She Dies Tomorrow,” characters aren’t overtaken by the belief that everyone, or even several people, will die— just themselves.

Continue reading ‘She Dies Tomorrow’: Amy Seimetz Creates A Presciently Disturbing Surreal Mystery About Viral Ideas That Kill [Review] at The Playlist.

What would you do if you knew deep down in your bones that tomorrow you were going to die? Would you sit back and let it happen? Perhaps you’d enjoy your final hours and do what you’ve always wanted? Or maybe you’ll convince your friends that you’re really going to die tomorrow and thus, convince them that maybe they’re going to die as well? It’s that latter situation that exists in the new feature, “She Dies Tomorrow.”

READ MORE: Steven Soderbergh Has Written A ‘Sex, Lies & Videotape’ Sequel; Says George Clooney & More Set For ‘Kill Switch’

As seen in the trailer for “She Dies Tomorrow,” the film follows the story of a woman that is utterly convinced she will perish the next day.

Continue reading ‘She Dies Tomorrow’ Trailer: A Woman Is Convinced She’s About To Perish In Amy Seimetz’s New Thriller at The Playlist.

The recurring Film Twitter joke that made the rounds when quarantine first started, was uber-prolific filmmaker Steven Soderbergh (the ‘Oceans,’ trilogy “Out Of Sight”) had likely already made a few films in the weeks that had passed. And that’s basically turned out to be correct. On Flaviar’s interactive livestream show, The Nightcap live. hosted by Dan Dunn for spirit lovers—Soderbergh owns the tasty spirits company Singani63—, the filmmaker with no off switch has confirmed, that self-isolation does not mean an end to creativity.

Continue reading Steven Soderbergh Has Written A ‘Sex, Lies & Videotape’ Sequel; Says George Clooney & More Set For ‘Kill Switch’ at The Playlist.

You would think that a film from director Danny Boyle, writer John Hodge (based on the novel by Alex Garland), and star Leonardo DiCaprio is a sure-thing. However, back in 2000, the collaboration between those talented folks, titled “The Beach,” not only didn’t strike a chord with critics but is one of the worst reviewed projects in the careers of each of them (it currently holds a dismal 20% on Rotten Tomatoes).

Continue reading Danny Boyle Talks ‘The Beach’ Prequel Series From Filmmaker Amy Seimetz: “It’s A Bit Of A Headf*ck” at The Playlist.

When Marvel Studios was looking for the director of the upcoming “Black Widow” film, the studio interviewed a ton of filmmakers. Reports said that Marvel actually might have interviewed over five dozen directors for the project, including names like Lucrecia Martel, Amma Asante, Kimberly Peirce, and Maggie Betts. Apparently, one of the women interviewed was none other than Amy Seimetz.

Continue reading Amy Seimetz Explains Saying No To Directing ‘Black Widow’ After Meeting With Marvel: “It’s Not Really My Voice” at The Playlist.

The final trailer for the upcoming horror film “Pet Sematary” finds itself in an awkward position. Much like the last trailer, the latest clip doesn’t hide one of the most interesting aspects of the film’s plot. However, in showing people this aspect of the film, a major plot point is revealed that would have probably been best kept a secret. That being said, as the filmmaker’s recently said, there’s really no way to hide this part of the film and what we would consider a spoiler isn’t really a major spoiler.

Continue reading Final ‘Pet Sematary’ Trailer: If You Cheat Death, There’s A Price To Be Paid In The New Horror Film at The Playlist.

Considering how it’s nearly asking for it, how it could have easily been used against it, to re-employ the iconic “sometimes dead is better” line from Stephen King’s “Pet Sematary,” as well as Mary Lambert’s 1989 film adaptation, in the marketing is a bold move. Fortunately, the sleek, well-crafted, if somewhat muted “Pet Sematary” update by Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer (“Starry Eyes”) nails the tone of one of King’s most sinister tales, creating a bleak depiction of our own mortality and the choices we make in life that will always haunt us.

Continue reading ‘Pet Sematary:’ Update Of Stephen King’s Novel Exudes More Visceral Thrills Than Sorrow [SXSW Review] at The Playlist.

Despite the abject failure of “The Dark Tower,” The Stephen King-assaince is still in full swing. Every week it feels like either a classic movie based on one of King’s fantastical books is being made or, a beloved novel, not yet adapted to the screen issue is finally being made. Even when the product isn’t a Stephen King adaptation, Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” for example, it tends to be heavily indebted to his work.

Continue reading ‘Pet Sematary’ Trailer: Sometimes Dead Is Better In Another Stephen King Remake at The Playlist.

“What I would like to see happen is what we did on ‘The Girlfriend Experience’ and what we did on ‘The Knick’ which is auteur driven TV. Filmmakers and directors that really take on a whole show and do the whole thing. I just think you get a better result, you get something that’s more unified and more specific, as opposed to having multiple directors coming in,” Steven Soderbergh recently shared about the TV landscape.

Continue reading ‘The Girlfriend Experience’ Renewed For Second Season, Lodge Kerrigan & Amy Seimetz Will Return at The Playlist.

Alison Bechdel is blameless in all this, but a couple of years ago, when the reductive-but-snappy litmus test for cultural sexism that bears her name was upwafting on the zeitgeist, it inspired a thought experiment of my own. Now, most of the mental quizzes I set myself when bored have mayfly lives, because after a while (and this is the problem with the Bechdel test and its subsequent dogmatization too), applying such agenda-based filters as a method of cultural critique becomes as robotic as Mr.

Continue reading How The Outstanding New Starz Series ‘The Girlfriend Experience’ Gives Us A Female TV Antihero For The Ages at The Playlist.

20 Indie Filmmakers Who Found Their Second Acts On TV

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Demian Bichir, Amy Seimetz, And More Join Ridley Scott's 'Alien: Covenant'

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Watch: 12-Minute SXSW Short 'We'll Find Something' Starring Shane Carruth And Amy Seimetz

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Watch: New Trailer For Rick Alverson's Absurd And Hilarious 'Entertainment'

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Sundance Review: Rick Alverson’s ‘Entertainment’ Is A Twisted, Existential Comedic Masterwork

Continue reading Sundance Review: Rick Alverson’s ‘Entertainment’ Is A Twisted, Existential Comedic Masterwork at The Playlist.

Fantasia Exclusive: Watch The Trailer For Sci-Fi Thriller 'Reconstruction Of William Zero' With Conal Byrne & Amy Seimetz

Continue reading Fantasia Exclusive: Watch The Trailer For Sci-Fi Thriller ‘Reconstruction Of William Zero’ With Conal Byrne & Amy Seimetz at The Playlist.

Steven Soderbergh's 'The Girlfriend Experience' Becomes A Starz Series, Amy Seimetz & Lodge Kerrigan To Write & Direct

Continue reading Steven Soderbergh’s ‘The Girlfriend Experience’ Becomes A Starz Series, Amy Seimetz & Lodge Kerrigan To Write & Direct at The Playlist.