An iconic sci-fi star is joining a legendary science-fiction fantasy series. Sigourney Weaver, known for her turn as Ellen Ripley in the “Alien” series, has been cast in the upcoming “Star Wars” film, “The Mandalorian & Grogu,” according to THR.

There’s no word on who Weaver might play, and there are almost no plot details about the ‘Mando & Grogu’ film available.

Continue reading ‘Star Wars’: Sigourney Weaver Joins ‘The Mandalorian & Grogu’ Film at The Playlist.

This August will finally see the return of the “Alien” franchise with Fede Álvarez’s “Alien: Romulus.” Taking place between the events of the first two movies, last week’s ‘Romulus’ teaser trailer helped build some anticipation as the new installment takes place on a space station (an obvious inspiration from the video game “Alien: Isolation”). Actresses in the past, such as Noomi Rapace in “Prometheus” and Katherine Waterston in “Alien: Covenant,” have been compared to Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley, but new ‘Romulus’ star Cailee Spaeny tells Total Film she has big shoes to fill and won’t try replicating that character. 

Continue reading ‘Alien: Romulus’: Cailee Spaney Says She Won’t Try & Replicate Ripley & Calls Film “Properly Scary Horror” at The Playlist.

How does nature mirror our emotions? Prime Video‘s “The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart” utilizes Australia’s well-known landscape to illustrate one person’s fascinating journey. Its story follows a young girl, Alice, struck by a tragic event — her adult life marred by equally dramatic circumstances. Directed by Glendyn Ivin (“Penguin Bloom,” “Safe Harbour“) and from the producers of “Big Little Lies,” “Nine Perfect Strangers,” and “Anatomy Of A Scandal,” the project features renowned actress Sigourney Weaver in the role of June Hart, a grandmother reluctantly tasked with becoming the central figure in Alice’s story. Alycia Debnam-Carey portrays the series’ central figure, Alice; “Fear the Walking Dead” fans will instantly recognize the actress from her long run on the series. Asher Keddie, Leah Purcell, Frankie Adams, Alexander England, Charlie Vickers, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Sebastián Zurita, Alyla Browne, and Xavier Samuel also star in the project. 

READ MORE: Sigourney Weaver Says Hollywood’s “Incredible Sexism” Is The Reason She Didn’t Pursue A Directing Career

The series’ official synopsis:

Based on Holly Ringland’s best-selling debut novel, the seven-part series tells the emotionally compelling story of Alice Hart.

Continue reading ‘The Lost Flowers Of Alice Hart’ Trailer: Sigourney Weaver Stars In A Secrets & Heartbreak Prime Series For August at The Playlist.

With Fede Alvarez‘s “Alien” movie in production now and a TV series in development over at FX (likely for FX On Hulu), it’s safe to say that the “Alien” franchise lives on. But don’t expect its main heroine to appear in future installments. Deadline (via Total Film) reports that Sigourney Weaver says her time as Ellen Ripley is over.  

READ MORE: Isabela Merced Joins Fede Alvarez’s Upcoming ‘Alien’ Film For 20th Century

“There are all kinds of younger actors taking this kind of role.

Continue reading Sigourney Weaver Says She’s Done Playing Ellen Ripley In ‘Alien’ Movies: “I’ve Put In My Time In Space!” at The Playlist.

After flirting with obsolescence in the late 2000s, writer/director Paul Schrader has been experiencing something of a career renaissance. His original screenplay for 2017’s “First Reformed” was nominated for an Academy Award, and his 2022 follow-up “The Card Counter” appeared in numerous critics’ annual “best of” lists. Now, the acclaimed filmmaker’s momentum will be tested once again with the arrival of his latest opus “Master Gardener.” Here’s the indie crime thriller’s official synopsis:

“Narvel Roth is the meticulous horticulturist of Gracewood Gardens, a beautiful estate owned by wealthy dowager Mrs.

Continue reading ‘Master Gardener’ Trailer: Paul Schrader’s Latest Thriller Stars Joel Edgerton As A Horticulturist With A Violent Past at The Playlist.

Over the course of 2022, a Nicole Kidman-narrated ad for AMC Theatres has evolved from a campy meme into something of a communal prayer offered at the secular chapel of the movie theater. The fragments she incants evocatively describe the power of cinema when wielded at its maximalist best: “we go somewhere we’ve never been before,” “dazzling images on a huge silver screen,” “sound I can feel.” The year ends for audiences with a movie that genuinely deserves to follow such a paean: James Cameron’s long-delayed, much-anticipated “Avatar: The Way of Water.”

READ MORE: The 25 Best Films Of 2022

The specious claims that the original “Avatar” had no cultural impact evaporate all but instantly when Cameron plunges viewers back into the realm of Pandora.

Continue reading ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ Review: James Cameron’s Sequel Is Blockbuster Filmmaking At Its Biggest & Best at The Playlist.

The “Alien” franchise is a collection of bizarre behind-the-scenes stories that nearly saw Sigourney Weaver miss out on the three sequels for various reasons. But James Cameron has revealed that when he originally wrote “Aliens,” with the help of longtime producers Walter Hill and David Giler, he thought the actress was attached to the sequel. While he was assumed 20th Century Fox had an option to bring her back, and they even insisted they did, that actually wasn’t the case.

Continue reading James Cameron Secured Sigourney Weaver For ‘Aliens’ By Lying To Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Agent About Retooling It For Him at The Playlist.

The “Alien” franchise has had a headache-inducing history. Though dozens of scripts were developed over the years, many were completely tossed out, and several films featured last-minute scenes being rewritten on the set during filming. While the first two installments from directors Ridley Scott and James Cameron were massively praised commercial and critical successes, the second half of the Ellen Ripley odyssey gets dicey pretty fast.

READ MORE: ‘Alien’ Franchise Vet Walter Hill Says Disney Isn’t Interested In His ‘Alien 5’ Script

“Alien Resurrection,” the fourth and final film starring Sigourney Weaver, was an interesting case because Ripley’s character had been killed in the previous installment, “Alien 3,” by a then-young David Fincher, which was considered a financial and narrative stumble for the franchise.

Continue reading ‘Alien: Resurrection’ Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet Punches Back At Joss Whedon For Making Films Aimed At “Morons” at The Playlist.

Veteran actress Sigourney Weaver has made a name for herself playing strong and determined characters going back to the original “Alien” film from 1979, where she essentially played a modified version of the “final girl” in Ridley Scott’s artsy sci-fi take on the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” However, her ambitions to get behind the camera as a director seemingly were dashed by “incredible sexism” in Hollywood that she experienced first-hand as an actress trying to lead rather large studio films over multiple decades. 

While speaking with The New York Times to promote her upcoming film “Call Jane,” Weaver explains why she never pursued directing as a profession.

Continue reading Sigourney Weaver Says Hollywood’s “Incredible Sexism” Is The Reason She Didn’t Pursue A Directing Career  at The Playlist.

Paul Schrader always knew that “Master Gardener” would be controversial.

In the legendary filmmaker’s crime-thriller, which had its North American premiere at the 60th New York Festival earlier this month, Narvel Roth (Joel Edgerton), the head horticulturist of a historic Southern estate, is tasked by its demanding owner, Norma Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver), with taking on her grand-niece Maya (Quintessa Swindell) as an apprentice, only for Roth’s past in a white-supremacist movement to come to light. 

Continue reading Paul Schrader Talks ’Master Gardener,’ Almost Casting Kevin Spacey & “Dodging That Lolita Thing By Making Him A Proud Boy” [NYFF] at The Playlist.

Filmmaker Paul Schrader revealed some of the details of his next project at the New York Film Festival during the Q&A for his beautiful and more optimistic new film, “The Master Gardener.”  During the discussion with NYFF’s Dennis Lim and the film’s stars Joel Edgerton and Sigourney Weaver, Schrader said his next film would be about a “trauma nurse working in Puerto Rico.” But as he detailed, in his conversation about “The Master Gardener” and the so-called God’s Lonely Man trilogy that includes “First Reformed” and “The Card Counter,” this vocation, trauma nurse would just be the “occupational metaphor” used to hide what the film is really about.

Continue reading Paul Schrader Says His Next Film Centers On A Female Trauma Nurse In Puerto Rico at The Playlist.

Longtime “Alien” franchise screenwriter and producer Walter Hill (“48 Hours“) has revealed that Disney isn’t too keen on his “Alien 5” spec script — or in bringing back Sigourney Weaver‘s iconic hero Ellen Ripley for a legacy sequel.

The “Alien” franchise is in an interesting place at the moment. Not only are we getting an Earthbound prequel series from Noah Hawley (“Legion,” “Fargo”), but a new streaming feature film from horror director Fede Alvarez (“Evil Dead,” “The Girl In The Spider’s Web”) is on tap at Hulu (both projects are being produced by Ridley Scott).

Continue reading ‘Alien’ Franchise Vet Walter Hill Says Disney Isn’t Interested In His ‘Alien 5’ Script at The Playlist.

Paul Schrader is under no illusions about “Master Gardener,” the sure-to-be-divisive final chapter in an informal trilogy that kicked off with 2017’s “First Reformed” and continued with last year’s “The Card Counter.” For starters: the film centers on a former white supremacist (played by Joel Edgerton) and his attempts at redemption.

“This one is going to piss people off,” Schrader told IndieWire of the film, which premiered out of competition this weekend at the Venice Film Festival, where the auteur is also being given a lifetime achievement award.

Continue reading Paul Schrader Predicts Controversy For His Hot-Button ‘Master Gardener’: ‘This One Is Going To Piss People Off’ at The Playlist.

A man scribbles in his diary. The pages are visible by dim light, the wooden table nondescript. He takes his whisky neat and keeps his hair trimmed to military precision. On the paper, words he is unable to share, a self-imposed vow of silence acting as a twisted blend of punishment and preservation. To anyone familiar with the work of writer and director Paul Schrader, this is an easily recognizable pattern, which he employs once again in “Master Gardener,” the third and final film of an untitled trilogy preceded by 2017’s “First Reformed” and 2021’s “The Card Counter.”

READ MORE: Venice Film Festival Preview: 16 Must-See Films To Watch

The man in question is Narvel (Joel Edgerton in a career-best turn), whose calloused hands meticulously tender to all that sprawls from the soil of the Gracewood Gardens, where he acts as head gardener.

Continue reading ‘Master Gardener’ Review: Paul Schrader Builds A Fitting Ending To His Plagued Man Trilogy [Venice] at The Playlist.

It should not be a stretch to say that the United States is currently in a state of cognitive disarray following the overruling of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court. With this already controversial and landmark ruling, questions about the rights of women and the topic of bodily autonomy in the country are being asked more frequently than ever. Cinema, like any art at times like this, offers the venue for not just entertainment and distractions but introspection into the current state of the world, whether through documentaries or stories of the past speaking to the present.

Continue reading ‘Call Jane’ Trailer: Elizabeth Banks & Sigourney Weaver Fight For Women’s Reproductive Rights In Timely New Dramedy at The Playlist.

Sigourney Weaver may be best known for her iconic role of Ripley from the “Alien” franchise, where she is a total badass and murders Xenomorphs like there’s no tomorrow. But that’s not the type of role you can expect to see Weaver portray in the new drama, “The Good House.”

READ MORE: ‘Master Gardener’ First Look: Paul Schrader’s ‘The Card Counter’ Follow-Up Stars Joel Edgerton & Sigourney Weaver

Well, “The Good House” could be seen as “Alien,” if you replace the Xenomorphs with glasses of wine and the escape of the Nostromo is replaced with navigating middle-aged romance in New England.

Continue reading ‘The Good House’ Trailer: Sigourney Weaver & Kevin Kline Rekindle An Old Romance In New Drama at The Playlist.

When Sigourney Weaver appeared on the cast list for James Cameron’s upcoming “Avatar: The Way Of Water,” fans of the mega-franchise had some serious questions. Namely, who is she playing in the sequel? For those who don’t remember (and it’s okay if you don’t, because “Avatar” came out in 2009, and no one except for franchise uber-fans have watched it since), Weaver played Dr.

Continue reading ‘Avatar: The Way Of Water’: Sigourney Weaver Plays A Teenage Na’vi In James Cameron’s Upcoming Sequel at The Playlist.

Paul Schrader’s last two films, last year’s “The Card Counter” and 2018’s “First Reformed,” are among the most critically acclaimed of his career. So, will his follow-up keep the streak going? Audiences find out soon as Schrader’s next film, “Master Gardener,” hits theaters later this year.

READ MORE: Paul Schrader On ‘The Card Counter,’ Almost Casting Oscar Isaac 25 Years Ago & More [GAIFF Interview]

Joel Edgerton and Sigourney Weaver star in Schrader’s latest crime feature, and in this one, Schrader leaves behind the poker tables of “The Card Counter” for the world of horticulture in the deep South.

Continue reading ‘Master Gardener’ First Look: Paul Schrader’s ‘The Card Counter’ Follow-Up Stars Joel Edgerton & Sigourney Weaver at The Playlist.

Consider these scenarios: A woman who is unable to get an abortion even though she has a life-threatening condition because of her pregnancy. Women banding together to run underground abortion clinics because the procedure is illegal in their city or state. Women who are willing to have someone administer it without formal medical training because there is no other choice. Those storylines fuel “Call Jane,” a drama set in 1968, but depending on the outcome of several current cases at the U.S.

Continue reading Elizabeth Banks Is A Housewife Who Finds An Unexpected Calling In ‘Call Jane’ [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.

We casually throw the word “icon” around with such abandon these days that it almost feels like we need a new, more potent idiom to describe those who actually fit the bill. But until we get that term, let’s say that Sigourney Weaver is an absolute icon and leave it at that — a brilliant actor equally adept at drama, action, and comedy, a three-time Academy Award nominee (two of them in the same year), the kind of screen presence who lifts just about anything she’s in.

Continue reading ‘The Good House’ Showcases The Greatness Of Sigourney Weaver [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

We haven’t even had the world premiere of his latest film, “The Card Counter,” but it appears that Paul Schrader is ready to move onto his newest project, titled “Master Gardener.”

According to Hanway Films, Paul Schrader is putting together the cast for his new film, “Master Gardener,” and has enlisted talented folks such as Joel Edgerton and Sigourney Weaver to appear.

Continue reading ‘Master Gardener’: Joel Edgerton & Sigourney Weaver To Star In Paul Schrader’s New Film at The Playlist.

With “Demonic” getting released recently, filmmaker Neill Blomkamp has been making the publicity rounds talking about his new thriller. And you can’t really talk to Blomkamp about filmmaking without talking about one of the biggest films that he was attached to that famously fell apart— “Alien 5.” And according to a new interview with The Guardian, Blomkamp posits a theory that the not-so-great reception “Chappie” received when it was released led to Ridley Scott pulling the plug on his ‘Alien’ sequel.

Continue reading Neill Blomkamp Thinks ‘Chappie’ Might Have Caused Ridley Scott To Lose Faith In His ‘Alien’ Sequel at The Playlist.

If you’re a massive fan of the “Alien” franchise (as I am), then you know there is a huge debate over which film is the “best” of the bunch. Some will say it’s Ripley Scott’s original “Alien.” Others will say it’s Paul W.S. Anderson’s “Alien vs. Predator.” (Kidding.) Obviously, the film others will pick is James Cameron’s “Aliens.” Well, why not ask Sigourney Weaver, who has been the lead in a large number of these films?

Continue reading Sigourney Weaver Explains Why James Cameron’s ‘Aliens’ Features Her “Most Satisfying” Version Of Ripley at The Playlist.

It’s been more than a year since we were lucky enough to watch “My Salinger Year” at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival. And wow, things have changed in a year, huh? Well, while the entire world still deals with the global pandemic, IFC Films is preparing the long-awaited release of Philippe Falardeau’s new feature.

READ MORE: The 25 Best Films Of 2021 We’ve Already Seen

With “My Salinger Year” arriving next week, we’re happy to give our readers an exclusive peek at a clip from the new film starring Sigourney Weaver and Margaret Qualley.

Continue reading ‘My Salinger Year’ Exclusive Clip: Sigourney Weaver Sends Margaret Qualley To An Important Meeting In IFC’s New Film at The Playlist.

It’s been a good few years for Margaret Qualley. Breaking out in “The Leftovers,” she’s since caught the eye of Spike Jonze (“Kenzo World“), Quentin Tarantino (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood“), Netflix (“IO” opposite Anthony Mackie), FX (“Fosse/Verdon“), Tim Sutton (“Donnybrook“), Claire Denis (the not-yet-shot, “The Stars At Noon“) and has amassed a nice little career for herself that has come close to peaking yet.

Continue reading ‘My Salinger Year’ New Trailer: Margaret Qualley Wants A Life Less Ordinary at The Playlist.