There may have technically been fewer wide releases over the past six months of 2024 than the first six months of 2023, but despite lesser volume, there has been a bounty of good movies on the big screen. Some of them took a while to get to theaters following their festival premieres (“Robot Dreams,” “Problemista”), while others can only be classified as studio “surprises” (“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” “Challengers”), and, thankfully, more than one lived up to the pre-release hype (“Civil War,” “Dune, Part II”).

Continue reading The Best Films Of 2024 So Far: ‘Challengers,’ ‘Civil War,’ ‘Love Lies Bleeding’ & More at The Playlist.

As an actress and executive producer, Zendaya is already a multi-hyphenate, but she’s not quite ready to climb into a director’s chair.  IndieWire reports (via The New York Times) that the “Challengers” star needs more time before she directs her first project. But when that day comes, Luca Guadagnino will say, “I told you so.”

READ MORE: ‘Challengers’ Review: Zendaya Rules This Love Triangle

“I’m overly conscious of everything else around me,” Zendaya told the publication in an interview for Guada’s new tennis drama, in theaters today.  That’s when Guadagnino chimed in, “Because Z is a director. I told you many times, and I repeat it now to The Times.”  Zendaya stressed that she’s still “learning,” but given the pedigree of directors she’s worked with recently, like Guadagnino and Denis Villeneuve, she may be further along in her apprenticeship than she thinks.

Continue reading Zendaya Says She’s “Not Quite Confident Enough” To Direct Yet, But Luca Guadagnino Thinks Otherwise at The Playlist.

From almost all accounts, it seems like Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino has another hit on his hands with “Challengers,” a new tennis drama from MGM Studios that’s actually more of a love-triangle romance bundled into the sports genre. Starring Zendaya (Marvel’s “Spider-Man” franchise and the “Dune” series), Josh O’Connor (“Dr.

Continue reading Final ‘Challengers’ Trailer: Luca Guadagnino Sexy Tennis Love Triangle Stars Zendaya & Opens This Weekend at The Playlist.

Based on the marketing, you might think “Challengers” is at its core, a tennis movie and, well, it sort of is. The film is certainly set in the world of tennis, you can’t deny that, and at one point, Zendaya’s character Tashi Duncan remarks, “We’re always talking about tennis.” The sport is at the center of her life. But despite everyone involved’s best efforts, the serves and volleys in this movie are nowhere near as important as the decade-long love triangle between Tashi and one-time BFFs, Patrick Zweig and Art Donaldson, played by Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist, respectively.

Continue reading ‘Challengers’ Review: Zendaya Rules This Love Triangle at The Playlist.

A year ago, trades announced that Oscar-nominee Austin Butler (“Dune: Part Two“) would be leading a feature film adaptation of the famous Don Winslow crime saga novel “City On Fire” (No, not the similarly-titled Chow Yun-Fat movie that inspired Quentin Tarantino‘s “Reservoir Dogs“). A potential franchise starter for Sony, the crimed dra awould explore two criminal empires, Irish and Italian syndicates, that control New England and has been compared to the scope of something on the level of “The Godfather.” It’s been a long minute since we’ve heard an update, but Deadline reports the project has landed an impressive screenwriter to tackle the script.

Continue reading ‘City On Fire’: Austin Butler Crime Saga Adds ‘Challengers’ Writer Justin Kuritzkes at The Playlist.

April kicks off strong with the premiere of the bloody action thriller “Monkey Man,” directed by and starring Dev Patel. That buzzy energy floats throughout the rest of the month, with other genre-leaning films premiering following initial festival runs. There’s plenty for horror fanatics, from the latest in “The Omen” franchise to another Cronenberg making their directorial debut and the latest from Alex Garland.

Continue reading 12 Films To See In April: ‘Civil War,’ ‘Monkey Man,’ ‘Challengers’ & More at The Playlist.

“Challengers,” the new comedy from Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, seems like a big left turn for a director who can seemingly do it all. Guadagnino has done things like acclaimed romantic dramas like “Call Me Be Your Name,” chilling horror like “Suspiria,” and “Bones And All” and very formal arthouse films like, “I Am Love,” and he can seemingly do it all.

Continue reading ‘Challengers’ Trailer: Luca Guadagnino’s New Romantic Sports Comedy Stars Zendaya & Arrives In April at The Playlist.

It’s fall film preview time, finally. Before that though, one of the big stories coming from the entertainment industry this summer has been the Strike. The Writers Guild of America went on strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on May 2, and just over a month later after approving their own strike authorization, The Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and later joined the WGA in their call for better regulations and compensation.

Continue reading 2023 Fall Film Preview: 60+ Most Anticipated Movies To Watch at The Playlist.

Fans of Luca Guadagninio pricked up their ears when the director announced last year that his next film would be a movie about tennis. Guada and tennis? That doesn’t sound like it’d work on paper. But in Empire‘s sneak preview of “Challengers,” stars Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor  explain what Guada has on his mind regarding his new film. As usual, it’s all about “sensuality and desire,” as only Guada can do.

Continue reading ‘Challengers’ Cast Hints That “The Tennis Is The Sex” In Luca Guadagnino’s Upcoming Sports Drama at The Playlist.

Bad news out of the Venice Film Festival: Variety reports that Luca Guadagnino‘s “Challengers” will no longer be the opening film on the Lido this year. What’s more, MGM/Amazon Studios have pushed back the tennis love triangle drama’s US theatrical release to next spring, too. Instead of a September 15 release, “Challengers” will debut in theaters on April 26, 2024.

Continue reading Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Challengers’ To Skip Venice & Move To Spring 2024 Due To Actors Strike at The Playlist.

Well, it’s official: Variety reports that Luca Guadagnino‘s latest, his tennis love triangle film “Challengers,” will open the 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival. No surprise there, as Guada has premiered five of his seven feature films on the Lido. And after winning a Silver Lion for directing last year for “Bones And All” (Taylor Russell won the Marcello Mastroianni Award for acting, too), it only makes sense for the Italian director to return to Venice for his follow-up.

Continue reading ‘Challengers’: Luca Guadagnino’s Tennis Love Triangle Film With Zendaya Will Open The 80th Edition Of The Venice Film Festival at The Playlist.

After incredible, award-winning success with his film, “Call Me By Your Name,” filmmaker Luca Guadagnino has been happily toiling away in the horror film genre with his last two movies, “Suspiria” and “Bones & All.” Now, it appears the filmmaker is leaving the gore behind for something new—a sports drama titled “Challengers.”

READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2023

As seen in the trailer for “Challengers,” the film follows the story of a young professional tennis prodigy who is at the top of her game.

Continue reading ‘Challengers’ Trailer: Zendaya Is A Tennis Prodigy In The Sports Drama From Luca Guadagnino at The Playlist.

Every year, we think, “Okay, we’re not doing 100 films this year. F that!” But after much consideration, we’re gluttons for punishment. The annual 100 Most Anticipated Films of [Insert Year Here], in this case 2023, is always a huge beast, a herculean task, and one that makes us lose our minds a little bit, tbh. And it’s always fascinating to see what we rank high or low, and then either becomes much more important a film to that year (“Top Gun: Maverick,” “Elvis,” “The Fabelmans” not ranked all that high in 2022, but some of the most important films of the year) and or things we rank really high that turn out to either be duds, or just non-starters (now, of course, anticipating something and whether it’s actually great are two different things).

Continue reading The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2023 at The Playlist.

New kid at school Maren (Taylor Russell), has been invited to a sleepover by a few popular girls, a rite of passage she correctly recognizes as fraught with potential for catastrophe. She doesn’t totally fit in, her off-trend wardrobe and zealously protective father putting a radius between her and her peers, and now she’s faced with a battery of tests to unspoken, intricate teen etiquette. Despite her unease, natural human instincts toward camaraderie take hold, and the night seems to be going along swimmingly — until a moment of intimacy in which Maren lies down on the carpet next to one of the other girls, face-to-face under a glass table strewn with beauty accouterments to cement the “Virgin Suicides” brand of pubescent ennui.

Continue reading ‘Bones And All’: Luca Guadagnino On Violence’s Nature, Having The “Guts” To Release A Longer ’Bigger Splash’ & More [Interview] at The Playlist.

As the world premiere of “Bones And All” approaches at the Venice Film Festival, it’s easy to forget that Luca Guadagnino has another movie on the way. “Challengers,” set for release next August, stars Zendaya as the wife and coach of Mike Faist‘s tennis pro, who’s in the middle of an epic losing streak. How could it get any worse?

Continue reading ‘Challengers’: Luca Guadagnino Says His Upcoming Tennis Movie With Zendaya Is His “First Comedy” at The Playlist.

“Call Me By Your Name” director Luca Guadagnino makes his anticipated return to the big screen this year with “Bones & All.” Why does the movie have so much buzz? For one, it’s Guadagnino’s first film in almost four years, his last being 2018’s polarizing remake of Dario Argento‘s “Suspiria.” “Bones & All” also marks a reunion between the director and “Call Me By Your Name” star Timothée Chalamet, as well as screenwriter David Kajganich, who wrote scripts for “Suspiria” and 2015’s “A Bigger Splash.”  

READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2022

And there’s another reason “Bones & All” is one of 2022’s most anticipated releases: it’s a story about a young American couple (Chalamet and Taylor Russell) in love who also love to eat human flesh.

Continue reading Luca Guadagnino Promises That Cannibal Film ‘Bones & All’ Is “Extremely Romantic” & About “The Impossibility Of Love” at The Playlist.

Recently, it was reported that Luca Guadagnino is putting together a cast for his latest film, titled “Challengers.” At the time, we learned the film was set to star Zendaya (of “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” “Euphoria,” and Edgar Wright’s Super Bowl ad fame). But now, we also know a couple of the other folks who will be joining her in the production.

Continue reading ‘Challengers’: Josh O’Connor & Mike Faist Join Zendaya In New Tennis Drama From Luca Guadagnino at The Playlist.

From her early work in kids programming to now being one of the most recognizable stars on the planet, the world seems to have fully embraced Zendaya for years now. And her star is only growing, as she appears in bigger and more respected projects. Now, it appears the actress is ready to collaborate with one of the most acclaimed filmmakers on the planet, Luca Guadagnino in a new film, “Challengers.”

According to a report from Puck, it appears Luca Guadagnino is working on a new film titled “Challengers,” about the world of tennis.

Continue reading ‘Challengers’: Zendaya To Team Up With Luca Guadagnino On A New Tennis Drama at The Playlist.