In 2023, there are few actors as well known as Michael Fassbender. And this year proved how versatile he is as a performer, with polar opposite roles in films “The Killer” and “Next Goal Wins.” So, with that knowledge, it’s interesting to hear him talk about his beginnings in Hollywood and how unlikely it was for him to end up where he is today. 

Continue reading Micheal Fassbender Says He Lost The Lead Role In ‘Pearl Harbor’ To Ben Affleck But Got ‘Band Of Brothers’ Instead at The Playlist.

As is often the case, November is a packed month for the film release schedule. There are plenty of festival favorites that made the rounds and are now getting their mainstream release. It’s also a big month for notable directors with new films from everyone from Sofia Coppola to Ridley Scott. With that said, we can’t write about everything, but even those not mentioned on the below list are worthy of checking out.

Continue reading 15 Films To Watch In November: ‘Napoleon,’ ‘Maestro,’ ‘The Killer’ ‘The Marvels’ & More at The Playlist.

Everybody loves a winner turned loser, especially these days, Taika Waititi. As of late, in his non-“Thor” directorial output, the once-beloved filmmaker has gravitated toward zeroes meekly shuffling around the margins of power. He’s vaunted swagless vampires dissed by alpha-werewolf rivals, the dweebiest li’l squadron the Third Reich ever saw, and with his latest film “Next Goal Wins” — a slight step up from his calamitously precious take on the Holocaust, which has left him with an evident self-destructive impulse to tackle issues bigger than he can handle — he rallies the losingest club in the history of international soccer. 

Continue reading ‘Next Goal Wins’ Review: Taika Waititi Gets One Big Red Card For His Underdog Soccer Comedy [TIFF] at The Playlist.

TIFF 2023 gets underway tomorrow, and that means plenty of world premieres over its ten-day schedule. And there several movies debuting in Toronto to get excited about, like Brian Helgeland‘s “Finestkind,” the GameStop short comedy “Dumb Money,” and the star-studded New England noir “Reptile,” which makes the feature debut for Grant Singer.

READ MORE: TIFF 2023: Taika Waititi’s ‘Next Goal Wins’ Starring Michael Fassbender Will Premiere In Toronto

And there’s also Taika Waititi‘s “Next Goal Wins,” which has its world premiere at TIFF this weekend.

Continue reading New ‘Next Goal Wins’ Clip: Taika Waititi’s Soccer Comedy With Michael Fassbender Has Its World Premiere At TIFF This Weekend at The Playlist.

It’s officially September. Summer is winding down, school is starting, and the Fall film festival circuit has kicked off. By the time you read this, you’ll have seen dozens of our reviews from the Venice Film Festival and Telluride Film Festivals. And so, while TIFF boasts much-anticipated titles like Christos Nikou’s “Fingernails” with Jessie Buckley, Richard Linklater’s “Hitman,” Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers” reuniting him with Paul Giamatti, Michel Franco’s “Memory” with Jessica Chastain, Kitty Green’s “The Royal Hotel” with Julia Garner and Jessica Henwick, you’ll have read our reviews of those now.

Continue reading Toronto International Film Festival 2023: 26 Must-See Films To Watch At TIFF 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.

UPDATE: In the first sign of this being correct, the release date for “Poor Things” changed from September to December 8.

Even as the fall film festivals begin announcing their lineups of star-studded features and studios continue to release trailers for films coming later this year, there’s a ton of uncertainty regarding the release schedule for the rest of 2023. The reason behind these questions is the SAG strike, which means the A-list stars (or any actors, for that matter) can’t promote the new releases when they arrive.

Continue reading Disney Reportedly Considering Fall Film Delays Due To SAG Strike at The Playlist.

Summer has just started, but film festival season is already approaching. And while Cannes dazzled with new films by Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, and more, the first major salvo in the fall film festival wars has been thrown down by the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Today, TIFF announced that Taika Waititi’s “Next Goal Wins,” a soccer comedy directed and co-written by the New Zealand filmmaker, will make its world premiere at the 48th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival (September 7–17).

Continue reading TIFF 2023: Taika Waititi’s ‘Next Goal Wins’ Starring Michael Fassbender Will Premiere In Toronto at The Playlist.

Taika Waititi’s follow-up to “Thor: Love and Thunder,” “Next Goal Wins,” has all the ingredients of a potential Awards contender. The movie is based on the 2014 British documentary of the same name, directed by Mike Brett and Steve Jamison, with a script written by Waititi and Iain Morris. The movie tells the story of coach Thomas Rongen, who is tasked to turn around the American Samoa national football team from one of the worst football teams in the world to one of the best.

Continue reading ‘Next Goal Wins’ Trailer: Taika Waititi’s Sports Comedy With Michael Fassbender Hits Theaters In November at The Playlist.

It’s already been an eventful week for Walt Disney Studios. The long-promised layoffs hit the company’s theatrical divisions yesterday and this morning Disney filed a lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis claiming a “relentless campaign to weaponize government power.” In Las Vegas, however, the studio had a job to do, convince the world’s theater owners and managers that their upcoming slate was something to get excited about. The CinemaCon audience was already excited for “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol.

Continue reading Gareth Edwards’ ‘The Creator’ & Pixar’s ‘Elemental’ Top Disney’s CinemaCon Teases 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.

After two “Thor” movies and taking on Nazi Germany in 2019’s “Jojo Rabbit,” what’s a film project Taika Watiti could do to spice things up? How about a sports movie about undergods that the director deems as “basically the “Cool Runnings” of soccer”? Enter “Next Goal Wins,” Waititi’s new film out next April, about the true story of an American Samoan soccer team who went from one of the worst teams in the world to an elite squad.

Continue reading ‘Next Goal Wins’ First Look: Taika Waititi’s Next Film Tells The Underdog Story Of One Of The World’s Worst Soccer Teams at The Playlist.

Just a week ago, Walt Disney Studios unveiled new projects, dropped cast reveals, and revealed exclusive new content at their D23 Expo. Marvel, Lucasfilm, Pixar, Walt Disney Animation; the studio flexed with all their biggest I.P. Well, one week later, and Disney is revealing release dates for much of this content.

In some cases, the dates were already planted in a TBD fashion; in other cases, some films are receiving release dates for the first time, and finally, some dates are just shifting slightly.

Continue reading Disney Reveals 2023 Schedule: Dating Pixar Films, ‘Snow White’ & ‘Next Goal Wins’ at The Playlist.

Ready to release a Marvel movie (“Thor: Love & Thunder”), writing a “Star Wars” movie, acting in and overseeing HBO’s “Our Flag Means Death,” executive producing FX’s “What We Do In The Shadows,” and more that gets added all the time, Taika Waiti is hyper-busy. He’s so busy that he even directed a little indie movie that everyone has forgotten and has been sitting on the shelf for two years.

That movie, “Next Goal Wins,” a soccer movie starring Micheal Fassbender, Elisabeth Moss, Rhys Darby, Will Arnett, and more, is an adaptation of a documentary of the same name about a failed Samoan soccer team who was humiliated at the World Cup in 2001.

Continue reading Taika Waititi Says ‘Next Goal Wins’ Comes Out Later This Year & The Film “Sat On Ice” For A Full Year at The Playlist.

Elisabeth Moss is killing it right now, and as we detailed in our interview with the actress last week about her new Apple TV+ series “Shining Girls,” she is becoming a major triple threat, evolving from an actor who is instrumental in calling the shot, producing and directing nearly everything she appears in. Just like Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” of which Moss is the lead and now a producer and one of the directors, on “Shining Girls”—an ambitious series about an assault victim, a time-traveling serial killer, and a journalistic procedural to catch the killer—she took on a similar role on a (read our review here).

Continue reading Elisabeth Moss On Plotting A Feature Directorial Debut, Working With Jane Campion & Taika Waititi [Interview] at The Playlist.

Remember when Taika Waititi filmed “Next Goal Wins” way back in 2020 before beginning work on “Thor: Love and Thunder?” You might have forgotten considering the film has seemingly been sitting on the shelf for quite a while for one reason or another. Well, over the holidays, it appears we got some movement on the film, as Will Arnett joined the cast. Wait, why did Taika Waititi add someone to the cast after principal photography has long since been completed?

Continue reading ‘Next Goal Wins’: Will Arnett To Replace Armie Hammer In Reshoots For Taika Waititi’s Upcoming Film at The Playlist.

Taika Waititi has been heavily in demand lately. One of his upcoming projects he’s attached to make is an original “Star Wars” feature film for Lucasfilm that he was originally announced to co-write with Oscar-nominated screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns (“1917,” “Last Night In Soho“). Waititi previously earned a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for his WWII dramedy “Jojo Rabbit.”

READ MORE: ‘Reservation Dogs’: Taika Waititi Introduces An Indigenous Slacker Community Full Of Rebel SmartPhone Punks [Review]

While speaking in a lengthy interview with Wired to promote his role as the villain of “Free Guy,” Taika Waititi has confirmed he’s landed on a story for his “Star Wars” movie.

Continue reading Taika Waititi Not Giving Up On ‘Akira’ & Finally Has A Story For His New ‘Star Wars’ Movie at The Playlist.

20th Century Studios has been trying to get a new “Flash Gordon” movie in development years before the merger with Disney with directors such as Matthew Vaughn (“X-Men: First Class“) and Julius Avery (“Overlord“) attached at various points to bring a fresh incarnation of the pulp sci-fi hero after multiple incarnations over the years including the beloved/campy film from 1980 that featured a score and theme song from the British rock band, Queen.

Continue reading Taika Waititi’s ‘Flash Gordon’ Movie Shifts From Animation To Live-Action at The Playlist.

I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. Aside from the election result, Trashfire 2020™ was a shitty year. And a weird and disorienting year thanks to COVID-19 and having to shelter-in-place, quarantine, and social distance from one another blah, blah, blah coronavirus f*cked us hard. Movies certainly took it in the teeth this year, and especially the theatrical industrial complex, which feels like it’s on its last legs. But regardless of what happens next for theaters, people are going to continue making and releasing movies.

Continue reading The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2021 at The Playlist.

Taika Waititi finds himself in an interesting situation that shows just how unique he is as a filmmaker. He’s currently navigating awards season as the filmmaker behind WWII satire “Jojo Rabbit,” filming his sports comedy “Next Goal Wins,” and prepping the upcoming superhero epic “Thor: Love & Thunder.” Oh yeah, and he directed the finale of “The Mandalorian.

Continue reading Taika Waititi Calls Michael Fassbender A “Comic Revelation” In ‘Next Goal Wins’ & Won’t Reveal Baby Yoda’s Real Name at The Playlist.

Whether you loved it or, um, you didn’t, it’s hard not to be happy that Elisabeth Moss has already earned some recognition for her phenomenal performance in Alex Ross Perry’s “Her Smell.” So far this season, Moss has landed Gotham Award and Independent Spirit Award nominations for her portrayal of Becky Something, the drug-addicted lead singer of the rock band Something She in Perry’s fictional music industry drama.  The fact Moss’ work in the April release hasn’t been forgotten is a testament to how deserving she is among the deluge of year-end contenders.

Continue reading Elisabeth Moss Sits Down For An Epic Interview On ‘Her Smell,’ ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ & Much More at The Playlist.

Just recently, it was announced that Elisabeth Moss left the upcoming Jane Campion film, “The Power of the Dog,” due to scheduling conflicts. It’s unclear what the conflict might be, but perhaps that was just a precursor to today’s news that the actress is in talks to join a brand-new film from director Taika Waititi.

According to THR, Moss is in talks to join Michael Fassbender in the cast of the upcoming Waititi film, “Next Goal Wins.” The film, which is based on the recent documentary of the same name, follows the true story of the American Samoa football (soccer) team and their coach, Thomas Rongen, as the team attempts to turn their losing traditions around to try to qualify for the FIFA World Cup.

Continue reading Elisabeth Moss In Talks To Join Michael Fassbender In Taika Waititi’s New Film ‘Next Goal Wins’ at The Playlist.

Some top-shelf directors take several years between films. Fortunately for fans of filmmaker Taika Waititi, that’s not the case. The New Zealand filmmaker is just coming off the world premiere of his latest film “Jojo Rabbit,” a so-called “anti-hate satire” about a boy who has Hitler for an imaginary friend, and he has two films in the works right now, both of which he seems to be juggling.

Continue reading ‘Next Goal Wins’: Michael Fassbender In Talks To Play The Coach For Taika Waititi’s Soccer Movie at The Playlist.

There’s an old saying that goes “Idle hands are the Devil’s playthings.” Or is it “Idle hands are the Devil’s workshop?” Whatever the case, idle hands sucks (and yes, that applies to films of the same name). But I digress.

All this to say that Taika Waititi is obviously a filmmaker that agrees with the above sentiment (though I’m not sure about his thoughts on late-‘90s Jessica Alba).

Continue reading ‘Next Goal Wins’: Taika Waititi’s New Mystery Film Is Revealed To Be Based On 2014 Underdog Sports Doc at The Playlist.