With the steady stream of blockbusters starting to dry up, fall festival season is fast approaching, and following big TIFF and NYFF announcements earlier in the week, Venice debuted their 2017 slate this morning. The Lido-based festival is one of our favorites, and while it’s sometimes existed in the shadow of Cannes, that’s begun to shift in recent years thanks to some killer lineups (Paul Thomas Anderson and Terrence Malick being among those who’ve debuted movies there), and a killer Oscar run – with “Gravity,” “Birdman,” “Spotlight” and “La La Land” all debuting there before going on to enormous awards season success.

Continue reading Venice 2017 Line-Up Led By Darren Aronofsky, Guillermo Del Toro, George Clooney, William Friedkin & More at The Playlist.

The official press conference isn’t until next week, but as these things go, the trades have gotten the scoop on the Venice Film Festival lineup, and it’s a killer. While the Lido always has plenty of goods, this year they really seem to be bringing the business with several high profile titles that will join opener, Alexander Payne‘s “Downsizing.”

George Clooney’s “Suburbicon,” Guillermo Del Toro’s “The Shape of Water,” Martin McDonaugh‘s “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” Andrew Haigh‘s “Lean On Pete,” Paul Schrader‘s “First Reformed,” and Lucrecia Martel’s “Zama” are all expected to make their premieres in Venice.

Continue reading Venice Fest Lines Up ‘Suburbicon,’ ‘The Shape Of Water,’ ‘Three Billboards’ & More; ‘mother!’ Not Going at The Playlist.

Four years have now passed since director Abdellatif Kechiche brought his explicit, emotionally raw “Blue Is The Warmest Color” to the Cannes Film Festival. Many prognosticators had him pegged to return to the Croisette this year with his new film “Mektoub Is Mektoub” (now titled “Mektoub, My Love“) but as we learned just a couple of months ago, the film has mutated. 

Continue reading ‘Blue Is The Warmest Color’ Director Abdellatif Kechiche Auctioning Off Palme d’Or To Finish ‘Mektoub, My Love’ at The Playlist.

Over the past few months, movie nerds and trade publications have been throwing darts at the Cannes Film Festival Speculation Board, but one picture that nearly everyone declared as a near certainty was “Blue Is The Warmest Color” director Abdellatif Kechiche‘s “Mektoub Is Mektoub.” The film, an adaptation of “La Blessure, la vraie” by François Bégaudeau, follows a young screenwriter who travels to the Mediterranean and gets involved in a love triangle, went into production last summer, with details being kept secret (in fact, there’s still no word on the cast members).

Continue reading Legal Woes Will Keep Abdellatif Kechiche’s ‘Mektoub Is Mektoub’ Out Of Cannes, Project Has Expanded Into 2 Films at The Playlist.

There’s now less than a month until Christmas, and after a start last week with our look at the Best Posters and Best Trailers of the year, this week commences in earnest our annual smorgasbord of movie love that is our annual Playlist year-end features marathon. We’ll be looking at the best and worst of films, performances, sequences, cinematography, soundtracks and more across the next few weeks, which will serve as a reminder that 2016 was a pretty strong year at the movies.

Continue reading The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2017 at The Playlist.

It’s been a few years since Abdellatif Kechiche released “Blue Is The Warmest Color,” and embarked on a rocky press tour which saw the film’s stars Lea Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos publicly battle the filmmaker about their experience making the movie, and the director himself declaring his movie shouldn’t be released, before changing his mind, and then saying he was going to put together a director’s cut that was forty minutes longer (which hasn’t yet happened) while also considering a possible sequel.

Continue reading ‘Blue Is The Warmest Color’ Director Abdellatif Kechiche Secretly Shooting His Next Film at The Playlist.