After the box office success of “Dune: Part Two” earlier this year, it’s a matter of when, not if, Denis Villeneuve completes his planned filmic triptych with a “Dune: Messiah” adaptation. But fans of Frank Herbert‘s original novel know that “Messiah” jumps ahead in time a bit before its events unfold. That means Villeneuve ideally must wait for Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya & co.

Continue reading ‘Dune: Prophecy’ NYCC Trailer: ‘Dune’ Prequel Series Premieres On HBO & Max On November 17 at The Playlist.

BAFTA winner Jodie Comer came out of the gate so damn strong with her breakout turn in “Killing Eve,” and she’s shot up to the A-list ever since. Case in point, her new apocalyptic drama, executive produced by Benedict Cumberbatch, who also co-stars, is one of the most anticipated titles of the recently kicked off Toronto International Film Festival.

READ MORE: Toronto International Film Festival 2023: 26 Must-See Films To Watch At TIFF

The film receives its world premiere at TIFF tomorrow, so naturally, the first teaser trailer and poster has been released.

Continue reading ‘The End We Start From’ Teaser Trailer: Jodie Comer’s New Apocalyptic TIFF Drama Opens December 8 at The Playlist.

The first “Murder Mystery” from 2019, written by James Vanderbilt (“Zodiac”), was a fun star-studded throwback to the 1980s Agatha Christie films like 1982’s “Evil Under the Sun,” with salt of the earth Brooklynites Nick and Audrey Spitz (Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston) thrown into the mix. The script was a smart, genre-savvy affair coupled with Sandler-style lowbrow comedy, a combination that almost worked, but was undone by the lackluster direction by Kyle Newacheck.

Continue reading “Murder Mystery 2” Review: Sandler and Aniston Feed The Rich In This Unnecessary Sequel at The Playlist.

While fans await Denis Villeneuve‘s “Dune: Part Two,” in theaters (tentatively) next November, another “Dune” project looms on the horizon: HBO Max‘s “Dune: The Sisterhood.” And anticipation is already high for the upcoming series, with Emily Watson, Shirley Henderson, and Indira Varma leading the show’s cast. Now Deadline reports three more joining the ensemble: Mark Strong, Jade Anouka, and Chris Mason.

Continue reading ‘Dune: The Sisterhood’: Mark Strong, Jade Anouka & Chris Mason The Latest To Join The Cast Of Upcoming HBO Max Series at The Playlist.

In his last film, 2019’s “Vivarium,” Lorcan Finnegan gave the fantasy of homeownership a nightmarish makeover to mediocre results. Even at 97 minutes, that movie feels like an interminable slog. But worse still is its thuddingly literal premise, where Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots find themselves trapped in a planned neighborhood and forced to raise a child while they dig their own graves. As if moviegoers needed another film that suggests suburban domestic life is a trap of tedium and drudgery that bilks people of agency and fulfillment so the next generation may suffer the same fate.

Continue reading ‘Nocebo’ Review: It’s Parasites All The Way Down In Lorcan Finnegan’s Sharp Take On Folk Horror at The Playlist.

As Season 1 of “House of the Dragon” comes to a close, HBO subscribers need not wait long for another healthy dose of prestigious family drama set in the world of the wealthy and influential. The trailer has arrived for Season 4 of “Succession,” HBO’s razor-sharp drama slash satire centering on the embittered Roy family, owners of the fictional media empire, Waystar Royco. Season 3 garnered multiple wins at September’s Primetime Emmy Awards, including for Outstanding Drama Series.

Continue reading ‘Succession’ Season 4 Teaser: The Roy Family Saga Continues In The New Season Of HBO’s Award-Winning Drama at The Playlist.

“Allow me in, and you will be free.” These are the chilling words spoken by a mysterious nanny (Chai Fonacier) who upends the life of a fashion designer (Eva Green) recovering from an unknown illness in the trailer for filmmaker Lorcan Finnegan’s “Nocebo.” The film’s two-minute trailer does a great job establishing an eerie atmosphere without revealing too much. While it is quite apparent that Green’s character is still in recovery from whatever has stricken her, much to the worry of her husband (Mark Strong), Fonacier’s sudden entrance into their lives goes unexplained.

Continue reading ‘Nocebo’ Trailer: Eva Green & Mark Strong’s Star In Lorcan Finnegan’s Latest Creepy Psychological Horror at The Playlist.

There are dozens of films about Mount Everest and the brave people that have attempted to summit the mountain. Like all micro-genres of films, some are good, some are bad, and some are just…whatever. Well, why not add another film to the variety of films about the famous peak, as filmmaker Doug Liman and actor Ewan McGregor are ready to give present yet another story about Everest.

READ MORE: ‘Edge Of Tomorrow 2’: Emily Blunt Calls The Script “Amazing,” But Suggests The Sequel Is Too Expensive To Make

According to HanWay Films, Doug Liman is set to direct “Everest,” a new film about the true story of one man’s attempt to climb Everest and tackle the impossible.

Continue reading ‘Everest’: Doug Liman To Direct A New Thriller Starring Ewan McGregor, Mark Strong & Sam Heughan at The Playlist.

British actor Mark Strong has made a career playing cinematic bad guys for big studio movies, but there has been one franchise that has been allusive to him: James Bond. The actor revealed to Sky One’s There’s Something About Movies (via Express) that he blew a potential villain role in a James Bond film that Pierce Brosnan led. 

READ MORE: ‘Skyfall’ Writer Is Worried About The James Bond Franchise After Amazon/MGM Deal

“I went up for a villain in a Bond movie [in the] Pierce Brosnan era…And I learnt the lines… and to celebrate I went out for a drink, and I got pissed.

Continue reading Mark Strong Blames A Drunken Night Out With Pal Daniel Craig For Blowing Bond Villain Audition During The Pierce Brosnan Era at The Playlist.

There are few insights as shopworn as “war is hell,” but there’s a sequence early in Sam Mendes’s new WWI epic “1917” that brings that old chestnut into, particularly sharp focus. The film’s protagonists, Lance Corporal Schofield (George MacKay) and Lance Corporal Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman), men on a mission of utter urgency and desperation, have just stepped onto the “no man’s land” separating British and German troops in northern France.

Continue reading ‘1917’: Sam Mendes Crafts An Epic, Harrowing & Visceral Modern Day War Classic [Review] at The Playlist.

WWI marked the confluence of terrifying new technologies unleashed on combatants of both sides and Europe itself. Machine guns—mowing down swaths of soldiers like never before. Soldiers—with tanks at their backs—bearing down on the enemy in cover and shooting streams of blistering flame. The gruesome suffering from poison gas was a whole other nightmare, and the devastation lent poignant credence when H.G. Wells dubbed the battle, “the war to end all wars.”

READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2019

It’s into this setting that Oscar-winner Sam Mendes (“American Beauty”) and the man behind the camera of the last two thrilling exploits of James Bond (“Skyfall” and “Spectre”) drops you into with his upcoming World War I film “1917.” Mendes reteams once again with the heralded composer and cinematographer combo of Thomas Newman and Roger Deakins to tell his second war story since 2005’s “Jarhead.”

Here’s the official synopsis:

READ MORE: The Best Films Of 2019… So Far

Sam Mendes, the Oscar®-winning director of Skyfall, Spectre and American Beauty, brings his singular vision to his World War I epic, 1917.

Continue reading ‘1917’ Trailer: Sam Mendes Takes You Into The Trenches Of The Great War & A Race Against Time at The Playlist.

“Do you know what they call it?” A woman’s voice, delicate and faint, rings out from the darkness. Then, a man murmurs a noise, husky and low, that indicates he doesn’t know.

“Stockholm syndrome,” the woman replies, as the face of Bianca Lind (Noomi Rapace) fades into view. Red-tinted, 70s-era glasses hang on the bridge of her nose as a pensive smile hangs on her lips.

Off-screen, the man asks, “What do you gotta do to get that?

Continue reading ‘Stockholm’: Ethan Hawke Turns In A Great Performance In An Utterly Forgettable Hostage Drama [Review] at The Playlist.

When you’re an accomplished, Oscar-winning filmmaker like Sam Mendes, you better believe the floodgates will open with actors wanting to work with you. The filmmaker, who is probably best known for “American Beauty,” “Road to Perdition,” and his two ‘Bond’ films, is preparing production on his upcoming new film “1917,” and unsurprisingly, he’s put together one hell of a cast and crew.

Continue reading Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth & More Join Sam Mendes’ Latest Film ‘1917’ at The Playlist.

It’s vox populi that DC has been dragging behind Marvel for a long time already. If we look for the most anticipated movies of 2019 in big databases such as IMDb or Fandango, or hey, even The Playlist, we’ll find out not only that Marvel’s “Avengers: Endgame” and “Captain Marvel” (funny enough in the present case) are the ones that top both lists, but also that DC didn’t even make the cut.

Continue reading ‘Shazam!’ Trailer: Billy Batson Makes A Big Leap Of Faith at The Playlist.

It feels like we already know everything about the upcoming “Bond 25.” With the director’s search taking an eternity and the status of Daniel Craig up in the air, we’ve been talking about this film for months. However, the truth is we don’t know anything about it, except that Craig will indeed return as 007 and the film will be directed by Danny Boyle. Well, thanks to a personal trainer, we now know a bit more.

Continue reading Mark Strong Seemingly Confirmed To Star In Upcoming ‘Bond 25’ at The Playlist.

In 1934, Morris “Moe” Berg was chosen to join the American All-Star baseball team on a trip to Japan, among the likes of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. While Berg did appear on some leaderboards, his career, overall, was unremarkable. Why then was he chosen to join the team? Berg’s actions while abroad provide the clues to a greater clandestine mission presumably under the aegis of the U.S.

Continue reading ‘The Catcher Was a Spy’ Trailer: Paul Rudd Goes From Baseball To Espionage at The Playlist.

If “The Catcher Was Spy” weren’t based on a true story, you’d most likely hear people say that it was far-fetched and implausible. The story of Moe Berg, a major-league baseball player whose double life had him spying on the Germans during WWII, was originally an extraordinary book by Nicholas Dawidoff, but much like many adaptations, the translation from page to screen just doesn’t work.

Continue reading Baseball Espionage Thriller ‘The Catcher Was A Spy’ Strikes Out [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.

Mark Strong‘s first run into the world DC was with 2011’s “Green Lantern,” and well know how that turned out. Everyone involved rightly wants a shot at another, hopefully better property (as Ryan Reynolds has done with “Deadpool“), and now Strong is going to get his shot.

The actor has signed up to play the villain in DC Films‘ “Shazam.” “Chuck” star Zachary Levi has the lead role in the movie, playing the hero who has super strength, the ability to fly, and lighting fast reflexes on top of nearly invulnerable skin.

Continue reading ‘Shazam’: Mark Strong Lands Villain Role at The Playlist.

From the hero’s luxe orange tuxedo jacket to the villainess’s Valentino Rockstud pumps, “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” oozes style (and even offers it for sale). But the visual pleasures don’t end there; for his sequel to “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” director Matthew Vaughn continues his reign as a helmer whose obsession with the look of a film pays off for the audience. However, despite all the beauty, elegance and energy seen on screen, “The Golden Circle” has all the endurance of an Instagram post.

Continue reading ‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle’ Is Fast-Fading Fun [Review] at The Playlist.

There were seemingly two camps when it came to Matthew Vaughn’s genre mash “Kingsman: The Secret Service.” There were those who were pleasantly surprised and taken with the wildly careening film that had Colin Firth bucking his typical role of stuffy, upper class, sauve white guy, to stuffy, upper class, suave white guy who kicks major ass set to the tune of “Freebird.” Then there were those who felt it was obscene, tired and poorly committed to its idea of being satirical when it refused to actually shake the restraints of a spy movie.

Continue reading NSFW ‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle’ Trailer Heads To America at The Playlist.

I’m not sure audiences necessarily want to go see a drama about terrorism given the state of the world, but “6 Days” turns back the pages of history to tell the true story of a hostage situation that grabbed headlines around the world.

Jamie Bell, Mark Strong, and Abbie Cornish star in the film that details the hostage taking of the Iranian Embassy, and the tense situation that unfolded to save lives and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Continue reading Time Is Running Out In New Trailer For ‘6 Days’ Starring Jamie Bell, Mark Strong & Abbie Cornish at The Playlist.

No one could’ve guessed that a little spy movie led by rising actor Taron Egerton would’ve grossed over $400 million, and one could argue that even before “Deadpool” became a monster success, it was “Kingsman: The Secret Service” that was breaking the R-rated mold. Now a sequel is on the way, with Colin Firth returning from the dead, Julianne Moore of all people joining in on the mayhem, and screenwriter Jane Goldman promising to buck expectations.

Continue reading Eggsy Returns In The First Trailer For ‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle’ at The Playlist.

At one point, Jamie Bell‘s name was being tossed around as a potential contender for 007, and while “6 Days” isn’t exactly a spy movie, it does give the actor a chance to show his skills in a story about terrorists threatening innocent British lives.

Co-starring Mark Strong and Abbie Cornish, and direced by Toa Fraser, the film tells the true story of the standoff inside the Iranian Embassy in Princes Gate, London in 1980.

Continue reading The Siege Begins In New Trailer For ‘6 Days’ Starring Jamie Bell, Mark Strong & Abbie Cornish at The Playlist.

Jessica Chastain is a great actress, but with “Miss Sloane,” she also proves that she’s a great movie star. Headlining the sort of pulse-pounding adult thriller that studios rarely produce anymore — and, as evidenced by this past May’s “Money Monster,” even more rarely succeed with at the domestic box office — Chastain is a one-woman force of nature as a dominant D.C. lobbyist mired in a fierce political battle with her former firm.

Continue reading Jessica Chastain Is A Force Of Nature In The Pulse-Pounding ‘Miss Sloane’ [Review] at The Playlist.

It’s not yet clear whether Jamie Dornan will be able to escape the shadow of “Fifty Shades Of Grey,” or be overtaken by it. Dornan has other affairs — winning acclaim for playing a serial murderer in “The Fall” — but he’s best known as Christian Grey for sure, and that’s even before the first sequel to the S&M franchise arrives in February.

READ MORE: Jamie Dornan, Ben Mendelsohn, Jemima and Lola Kirke To Star In Indie Film ‘Untogether’

But Dornan’s starting to show some of the roles he’s landed since — WW2 movie “Anthropoid” did ok, “The 9th Life Of Louis Drax,” which just opened last week, slightly less so.

Continue reading Jamie Dornan Fights For Survival In First Trailer For Netflix’s ‘The Siege Of Jadotville’ at The Playlist.