In perhaps one of the best feel-good stories in Hollywood this year, a coalition of 36 filmmakers have invested in a coalition to save Los Angeles’ fabled Westwood Village Theater. Organized by Jason Reitman, the group will book first-run features and repertory programming from the theater’s directors/caretakers.

The coalition of filmmaker/investors includes JJ Abrams, Judd Apatow, Damien Chazelle, Chris Columbus, Ryan Coogler, Bradley Cooper, Alfonso Cuarón, Jonathan Dayton, Guillermo del Toro, Valerie Faris, Hannah Fidell, Alejandro González Iñárritu, James Gunn, Sian Heder, Rian Johnson, Gil Kenan, Karyn Kusama, Justin Lin, Phil Lord, David Lowery, Christopher McQuarrie, Chris Miller, Christopher Nolan, Alexander Payne, Todd Phillips, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Reitman, Jay Roach, Seth Rogen, Emma Seligman, Brad Silberling, Steven Spielberg, Emma Thomas, Denis Villeneuve, Lulu Wang, and Chloé Zhao.

Continue reading Jason Reitman, Christopher Nolan, Lulu Wang, & 33 Other Filmmakers Save LA’s Historic Westwood Village Theater at The Playlist.

Director Lulu Wang’s sprawling “Expats” is long and lingering with evocative atmospherics. Complex and observant, mounted on an enormous canvas, the limited series is deeply ambitious and takes on a lot, arguably too much. Exploring ideas of motherhood, womanhood, loneliness, and grief, interrogating privilege, and the alienating experience of life as an immigrant from multiple perspectives, that’s not all. “Expats” also examines how people, specifically women, move past, through, and beyond tragedy, if they can at all.

Continue reading ‘Expats’ Review: Lulu Wang’s Moody, Layered Meditation On Loneliness, Grief, Privilege & Womanhood at The Playlist.

Recently, it was announced that Amazon is joining the ranks of Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming services by offering a cheaper, ad-infused tier for its streaming service, Prime Video. This would allow folks to pay less monthly, but they have to deal with commercials during their streaming content. For consumers, this is a choice. You either pay more or experience ads. For filmmakers and creators like Lulu Wang, this is a shocking announcement that really changes how their art is being consumed. 

Continue reading ‘Expats’: Filmmaker Lulu Wang Is “Very Angry” About Prime Video Adding Commercials In Her New Series at The Playlist.

Can tragedy provoke a larger discussion? Lulu Wang explores the complex issues surrounding privilege and social conscience in “Expats.” The filmmaker additionally serves as creator, executive producer, and writer on this adaptation of Janice Y. K. Lee’s novel “The Expatriates.” The project features a notable cast, with Nicole Kidman working alongside acclaimed talents Sarayu Blue, Ji-young Yoo, Brian Tee, and Jack Huston; Kidman is also an executive producer.

Continue reading ‘Expats’ Trailer: Nicole Kidman Stars In New Prime Video Limited Series From Director Lulu Wang at The Playlist.

As TIFF gears up for its start tomorrow, there are plenty of new titles premiering to anticipate. On the TV series side, none may be more anticipated than Prime Video’s “Expats.” Based on Janice Y.K. Lee’s 2016 novel “The Expatriates,” the series doesn’t premiere on the streamer until early next year, but its penultimate episode will screen in Toronto, showing off its stellar ensemble cast.

Continue reading ‘Expats’ First Look: Prime Video’s Limited Series With Nicole Kidman & More Premieres At TIFF On September 8 at The Playlist.

Lulu Wang is one of the most exciting filmmakers working today. Riz Ahmed is one of the most versatile and interesting actors and producers around. And with their powers combined? Let’s just say fun things are bound to happen. And that fun thing has a title, “The Son of Good Fortune.”

READ MORE: ‘Encounter’ Trailer: Riz Ahmed Stars As A Soldier On The Run On December 3

According to Variety, Lulu Wang is teaming up with Riz Ahmed to develop a new comedy series for Amazon titled “The Son of Good Fortune.” The series is based on the novel by Lysley Tenorio and follows the coming-of-age story of an undocumented Filipino teen being raised by his former B-star actress mother in the San Francisco Bay area.

Continue reading ‘The Son Of Good Fortune’: Lulu Wang & Riz Ahmed Teaming Up To Develop A New Comedy Series For Amazon at The Playlist.

Back in September, the collective mind of Film Twitter was blown when it was reported that Barry Jenkins was going to direct a ‘Lion King’ film for Disney. The director of “Moonlight” and “If Beale Street Could Talk” is jumping onto the Disney bandwagon to make a billion-dollar blockbuster? What?! Well, according to a new interview with Jenkins at Variety, he explained that he had the same hesitancy, but he ultimately changed his mind.

Continue reading Barry Jenkins Talks Reading The Script For His ‘Lion King’ Film: “Holy Sh*t, This is Good” at The Playlist.

Cinemas are in trouble. And what makes it worse is that this existential problem facing movie theaters, which existed before the pandemic but has only been exacerbated by the virus, comes at a time when people are watching more movies than ever before. Unfortunately, people are preferring to stay at home to enjoy their content instead of paying ticket prices and venturing off into potentially dangerous indoor public spaces. And the problem has gotten so bad, the biggest filmmakers on the planet are joining forces to urge the US government to do something.

Continue reading Scorsese, Nolan & Many More Filmmakers Urge US Congress To Save Cinemas: “We Fear For Their Future” at The Playlist.

Normally, news of a brand-new film from Ron Howard would garner happy reactions from film fans. Though he doesn’t always wow us with his films, when Howard is on his game, the filmmaker has the chance of turning in something special. But with the latest announcement about a new film project from Howard, at least one major film fan isn’t excited at all.

READ MORE: ‘Rebuilding Paradise’: Ron Howard Looks At The Aftermath Of 2018’s Californian Traumatic Firestorms [Review]

According to Deadline, Howard is signed on to direct and produce a new biopic about Chinese pianist Lang Lang.

Continue reading Lulu Wang Criticizes Ron Howard For Directing Upcoming Biopic About Chinese Pianist Lang Lang at The Playlist.

The name of Hirokazu Kore-eda is revered in the halls of The Playlist. We speak it only with a full appreciation of all the filmmaker has done over his career. So, normally it would pain us to report that one of his features, “Like Father, Like Son,” is getting an English-language remake. But when that new film is directed by Lulu Wang, suddenly we’re very interested.

Continue reading ‘Like Father, Like Son’: Lulu Wang Reportedly Working On A New Version Of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Film But It’s Not A Remake at The Playlist.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences invited 819 new members from 68 countries as the ranks of Hollywood’s top club swell to close to well over 9,300. The good news? According to AMPAS, 45% of the 2020 class are women, 36% underrepresented ethnic/racial communities and 49% international from 68 countries.  This is an impressive result for an organization that announced a goal in 2016 to double the number of women and underrepresented ethnic/racial communities by 2020.

Continue reading Awkwafina, Florence Pugh & Cynthia Erivo Among 819 New Academy Members at The Playlist.

Every Tuesday, discriminating viewers are confronted with a flurry of choices: new releases on disc and on-demand, vintage and original movies on any number of streaming platforms, catalog titles making a splash on Blu-ray or 4K. This weekly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you’re watching. 

This week’s new release slate includes three big Oscar nominees (and one winner), an acclaimed indie that should’ve been up there with them, new Aardman animation on Netflix, a muscular old-school action flick, and two new Blu-rays from Criterion. 

Continue reading The 9 Best Movies To Buy Or Stream This Week: ‘Jojo Rabbit,’ ‘Beautiful Day,’ ’21 Bridges’ & More at The Playlist.

With award season in full swing, coming off of some surprising wins at last night’s Golden Globes, The Hollywood Reporter has released the full video in their award seasons roundtable series. This week focuses on the directors, with Martin Scorsese (“The Irishman”), Greta Gerwig (“Little Women”), Noah Baumbach (“Marriage Story”), Todd Phillips (“Joker“), Fernando Meirelles (“The Two Popes”), and Lulu Wang (“The Farewell”) getting together to discuss a number of topics, including the importance of pre-production, streaming versus theatrical, and *sigh* Scorsese’s comments about Marvel films. 

Continue reading Watch Martin Scorsese, Greta Gerwig, Todd Phillips & More Discuss Nightmare Film Shoots, As Well As Streaming Vs. Theatrical at The Playlist.

Over the past few of years, the number of female directors landing high-profile film gigs seems to have been going up dramatically. At least, from an anecdotal perspective. However, over the past decade, the total percentage of female directors in the top 100 films of each year has remained largely stagnant. Well, according to a new report from the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative (via Variety), 2019 finally saw a dramatic change to that trend.

Continue reading The Percentage Of Female Filmmakers In The Top 100 Films Jumped Drastically In 2019 at The Playlist.

READ MORE: Martin Scorsese Describes The Safdie Brothers As “Two Bandits” After His Experience Meeting Them: “It Was Like They Were Mugging Me”

There’s no denying the contributions Scorsese has made to cinema during his decades as a filmmaker.

Continue reading Martin Scorsese Tells Lulu Wang Not To Do Superhero Films at The Playlist.

Sometimes, good things come to those who don’t wait. Just two days after Nicole Kidman and “The Farewell” director Lulu Wang shared a maybe-tipsy photo teasing an upcoming collaboration, their studio has made it official: Kidman and Wang will be collaborating on a new Amazon television series, one that tries to capture the depict the American ex-pat experience on the streets of Hong Kong.

READ MORE: “The Farewell” Turned Down a Big Streaming Offer To Stay in Theaters

Based on Janice Y.

Continue reading Lulu Wang Officially Joins Nicole Kidman’s ‘Expatriates’ Series At Amazon at The Playlist.

Recently, there’s been a lot of discussion over “The Farewell,” thanks to the film’s awards recognition, including two recent Golden Globes nominations. And while we’ll gladly talk about “The Farewell” for the next few months, as we make our way through Oscars season, that film’s director Lulu Wang has just dropped a major tease about her next project.

The filmmaker took to social media to not only make an announcement that she’s working on a new project, but also to say what actress would be in the cast.

Continue reading ‘The Farewell’ Director Lulu Wang Teases New Mystery Project With Nicole Kidman at The Playlist.

Every year, there’s always some controversy surrounding the major awards ceremonies in the film industry. A few years ago, headlines were made because of the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, highlighting the lack of diversity at the Academy Awards. This year, it appears that the representation issue has struck once again, this time with the Golden Globes and its fairly shocking lack of female filmmakers.

Earlier this morning, it was revealed that the Golden Globe nominations for Best Director didn’t include a single female filmmaker.

Continue reading ‘Honey Boy’ Director Alma Har’el Blasts Golden Globes For No Female Director Nominees at The Playlist.

The past two years have seen a sea change in the career of Nora Lum known professionally as Awkwafina.  She spent most of the early part of this decade putting her music degree to good use as an increasingly well-known hip-hop artist (she’d been rapping since she was 13).  But along the way she landed acting roles in the MTV TV series “Girl Code” and became something of a household name last year after starring in “Ocean’s 8,” “Crazy Rich Asians” and hosting “Saturday Night Live” (the first Asian-American woman to do so since Lucy Lui in 2000).  

Continue reading Awkwafina Has ‘Practical Pessimism’ About That Awards Buzz For ‘The Farewell’ [Interview] at The Playlist.

Lulu Wang’s Sundance smash, “The Farewell,” will be released by A24 this Friday. It’s simply one of the most formally layered and dramatically nuanced films of the year, and we imagine the indie film community will be hearing the incredibly talented filmmaker’s name come up in more than a few conversations this summer and hopefully this upcoming awards season as well.

READ MORE: ‘The Farewell’: Awkwafina Shines In A Resonant Happy/Sad Tale Of Family Love & Loss [Sundance Review]

With her unanimously acclaimed movie currently sitting at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes – as our review put it, “the brilliance of “The Farewell” is how it taps into a human universality… and it’s a clear cut breakthrough for Wang” — the Chinese American artist has already locked down her next project.

Continue reading Lulu Wang Lines Up Her Third Feature, A Sci-Fi Adaptation Mining The Same Source Material As Filmmaker Kogonada at The Playlist.

Filmmaker Lulu Wang is on the precipice of becoming one of the biggest names in indie film, thanks to her latest project “The Farewell.” After an incredible premiere at this year’s Sundance, Wang’s second feature film as a director was quickly part of a bidding war between some major distributors. And with offers on the table, Wang had to choose between theatrical release and a streaming platform.

According to a new profile of Wang in Vulture, the filmmaker’s decision didn’t actually come down to money.

Continue reading ‘The Farewell’ Director Turned Down A Streaming Service Offering Twice As Much Money In Favor Of Theatrical Release at The Playlist.

You can usually count on A24 to deliver high-quality films (though not quite always). They’ve also been one of the key movie distributors to ignite the careers of many young and talented new filmmakers. Coming up this year is “The Farewell,” written and directed by Lulu Wang who, judging from the glowing early reviews from Sundance earlier this year, and this enticing new trailer, may likely be another big filmmaker to emerge from this high-priced distributer.

Continue reading ‘The Farewell’ Trailer: Family Is All That Matters In This Terrific A24 Sundance Hit at The Playlist.

Despite the unequivocal success of last year’s “Crazy Rich Asians,” and 1993’s surprise hit “The Joy Luck Club,” outside these outliers, Asian-American stories have lacked tangible representation on screen for decades. “Crazy Rich Asians” runaway success only underlined the severe drought: audiences completely underserved and hungry for their own cultural narratives. At his year’s Sundance Film Festival, the programmers have put in a real effort for change.

Continue reading ‘The Farewell’: Awkwafina Shines In A Resonant Happy/Sad Tale Of Family Love & Loss [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.