Recently, “Oppenheimer” filmmaker Christopher Nolan made headlines by favorably comparing Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two” to the “Star Wars” sequel, “The Empire Strikes Back.” Those comments come from a conversation that took place on February 2, 2024, after a screening of Nolan’s sci-fi “Tenet” in IMAX 70mm Film at AMC CityWalk, as the film was recently given a quick theatrical re-release (“Tenet” came out during the pandemic and wasn’t as widely seen theatrically as most of Nolan’s movies, only grossing 365.3 million, given that was the heart of COVID-19 season in summer 2020).

Continue reading Watch: Christopher Nolan & Denis Villeneuve In 30-Minute Conversation About ‘Tenet,’ IMAX, The Bond Movie Influence & More at The Playlist.

Isn’t this interesting? Variety reports that Warner Bros. is giving Christopher Nolan‘s 2020 time-looping actioner “Tenet” a re-release in theaters, IMAX and 70mm next month as part of the build-up to “Dune: Part Two” on March 1. “Tenet” will run for one week only starting on February 23 in the US and select international markets with exclusive footage of Denis Villeneuve‘s sequel attached.

Continue reading ‘Tenet’ Re-Release Trailer: Christopher Nolan’s Time-Looping Action Extravaganza Returns To Theaters, IMAX & 70MM This February at The Playlist.

If you were ever questioning just how powerful Christopher Nolan is in Hollywood, look no further than the situation that developed between the filmmaker and Warner Bros. during the pandemic. After the release of “Tenet” in theaters during the height of COVID, WB entered 2021 with a new idea to release films both in theaters and on streaming at the same time. This reportedly upset Nolan, who then left WB to go work under the Universal banner for his next film, “Oppenheimer.” The bidding war that erupted after Nolan left proved that the filmmaker is one of the hottest commodities in the film industry right now.

Continue reading WB Reportedly Gave Christopher Nolan A Seven-Figure Check For ‘Tenet’ Royalties After The Filmmaker Left For Universal at The Playlist.

Obviously, when you think of two of the biggest proponents of the theatrical experience, names like Denis Villeneuve and Christopher Nolan come to mind. And in a new interview as part of the Reelblend podcast, Villeneuve is quick to point out just how great Nolan is at the craft and why his films are a must-see on the big screen.

In preparation for his new film, “Dune,” arriving in theaters and on HBO Max today, Villeneuve talked about the streaming vs.

Continue reading Denis Villeneuve Says ‘Tenet’ Is A “Masterpiece” & Calls Christopher Nolan A “Master” Filmmaker at The Playlist.

Netflix made a huge move recently by partnering with Steven Spielberg‘s Amblin for future projects, and it sounds like they’re not satisfied with that deal as they see it could help attract even more talent. 

READ MORE: Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Signs Deal To Make Films For Netflix

While speaking with Variety in a lengthy interview, the streaming giant’s movie chief Scott Stuber believes that their recent Amblin deal could be just the thing to help to lure a big whale like director Christopher Nolan, as he admits the company has had ongoing conversations with the filmmaker. 

Continue reading Netflix Movie Chief Hopeful They Can Land Christopher Nolan’s Next Movie After Spielberg’s Amblin Deal at The Playlist.

There were few surprises at the 25th Annual Art Directors Guild Awards. The pandemic delayed virtual ceremony honored old favorites and eventual Oscar and Emmy, winners. The major honories of the night included “Mank,” “Soul,” “Ozark,” “Black Is King,” “The Queen’s Gambit,” “The Mandalorian” and “Tenet.”

READ MORE: “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “Mank” among early 2021 BAFTA Award winners

This actually turned out to be Donald Graham Burt‘s second win of the day as “Mank” also took the BAFTA honor for Production Design.

Continue reading ‘Mank,’ ‘Black Is King,’ ‘Soul’ & ‘Tenet’ Top 2021 ADG Awards Winners at The Playlist.

This year the 2021 BAFTA Awards for Film were split over two nights. The first ceremony centered on eight awards for both below-the-line and short film categories. By the end of the one-hour event, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and were already big winners.

READ MORE: “Nomadland,” “Promising Young Woman” and “Rocks” lead 2021 BAFTA Award nominations

Costume Designer Ann Roth won just her second BAFTA for “Ma Rainey” while four artists gave the Netflix drama the Make-Up and Hairstyling BAFTA as well.

Continue reading ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,’ ‘Mank’ & ‘Tenet’ Among Early 2021 BAFTA Award Winners at The Playlist.

It has been months since we’ve really been able to give good news regarding the box office, but thanks to Adam Wingard’s MonsterVerse extravaganza, “Godzilla vs. Kong,” North American theaters are finally starting to show some signs of life. But the real question is whether or not the momentum can keep going?

According to estimates, it appears that “Godzilla vs. Kong” was able to earn a whopping $32.2 million over the three-day weekend and a total of $48.5 million since its debut on Wednesday.

Continue reading ‘Godzilla Vs. Kong’ Smashes The Box Office, But Are Cinemas Actually Rebounding? at The Playlist.

When it comes to screenwriting, there are few better and cheaper resources than the annual awards season. In a bid to get Oscar voters and film critics belonging to a critics group to consider their film in a certain script category, studios offer their screenplays for free. This means you can count exactly how many times the name Mank is uttered in David Fincher‘s “Mank” for yourself!

READ MORE: The 25 Best Films Of 2020 You Didn’t See

If you want to see for yourself what changed from the page to the screen in “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” or whether the script for “Tenet” makes any more sense than the film, then this is a golden opportunity to take a peek behind the curtain and see how the best or biggest in the business hone their craft.

Continue reading Download The 2021 Awards Season Screenplays For Free at The Playlist.

If there is any category that was full of surprises on Oscar’s shortlist day, it’s Visual Effets. To say there were unexpected selections and a slew of snubs is a major understatement. Of course, expected contenders “Tenet,” “Mank” and “Birds of Prey” made the cut, but that was about it.

READ MORE: “Minari” and “The Crown” rule 2021 SAG Awards nominations

An animated film, “Soul,” is among the 10 qualifiers as is the documentary “Welcome to Chechnya.” The biggest snub has to be “Wonder Woman 1984” with other VFX spectacles “Greyhound,” “The Call of the Wild,” “The Old Guard,” “New Mutants,” “Monster Hunter” and “Dolittle” all on the outside looking in.

Continue reading ‘Tenet,’ ‘Welcome to Chechnya’ Make Oscars Visual Effects Shortlist at The Playlist.

On this episode of The Playlist Podcast, Charles Barfield, Mike DeAngelo, and Brian Farvour are joined by a very special guest, Rolando Rodriguez, the CEO and President of Marcus Theatres. For those unaware, Marcus Theatres is the fourth-largest cinema chain in the US and fifth-largest in North America with more than 1,100 screens. And with 2021 upon us, we thought this would be the perfect time to speak with an expert on the theatrical release business about the struggles of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as what the exhibition industry is going to do to make sure it survives and thrives in 2021.

Continue reading Marcus Theatres CEO Talks Rough 2020 For Cinemas, Coexisting With Streaming Services & The Future Of The Industry [The Playlist Podcast] at The Playlist.

Most of us were thrown off when Warner Bros. and Christopher Nolan announced a “Tenet” promotion within the popular battle royale video game “Fortnite.” The idea felt a little “How Do You Do Fellow Kids?” scene from “30 Rock“; seemingly a way to give his upcoming sci-fi action film some marketing exposure to a younger demographic that could support the movie.

Continue reading Christopher Nolan Loves The Idea Of Making A Video Game In Theory, But Says He’s Devoted His Life To Film at The Playlist.

In spite of the general state of the world, 2020 ended up being a pretty great year for films – expectations for long-awaited auteur projects that were supposed to come out this year obviously being exempt from that conversation – and what’s more, it was a great year for film scores and soundtracks.

READ MORE: The 25 Best Films Of 2020

All of the films featured on this list are films that have drastically less of an impact without music, and there is a wide, rather dizzying array of talent here: seasoned professionals who’ve been doing this a long while, young up-and-comers who are interested in muddying the definition of what a traditional movie soundtrack is supposed to sound like, plus that dude from Phoenix writing new music for his wife’s movie (which is really just another way of saying if you haven’t checked out the soundtrack to Sofia Coppola’s “On The Rocks” yet, do so immediately). 

READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2021

At times, 2020 seemed like it had made time for every obscure musical subgenre under the sun: dancehall (“Lover’s Rock”), noise-metal (“Sound of Metal”), reggaeton (“Ema”), and Baltimore hip-hop (“Charm City Kings”).

Continue reading The 20 Best Soundtracks & Scores Of 2020 at The Playlist.

Christopher Nolan has been a very vocal supporter of the theatrical experience for years now. Well before the pandemic crushed movie theaters in 2020 and is threatening to continue into 2021, Nolan has been one of the filmmakers that have been out there talking about how he believes the theatrical experience is vital to the future of the industry. And so, when it was announced that Warner Bros. (Nolan’s studio of choice) is going to release its entire 2021 film slate in theaters and on HBO Max on the same day, the filmmaker wasn’t pleased.

Continue reading Christopher Nolan Still Upset Over WB/HBO Max Drama: “It’s A Question Of Ethics” 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 biweekly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you’re watching.

It’s the end of the year, so the streamers are pushing out their awards hopefuls, the home video distributors are hawking their holiday wares, and as a result, we have the most jam-packed edition of this column in its history – with an assortment of excellent new dramas, 4K upgrades of action classics, and catalog classics and art movies getting shiny new Blu-ray treatments.

Continue reading The 23 Best Movies To Buy Or Stream This Week: ‘Tenet,’ ‘Ma Rainey,’ ‘Sound Of Metal’ & More at The Playlist.

Of the big stories of 2020 (and we all know there are plenty of big stories), the film industry kept following the Christopher Nolan Saga this summer as we all anxiously awaited news on when we might see “Tenet.” Delay after delay, reports of Nolan forcing WB to release it too early in theaters, and the film “bombing” at the box office have been news fodder for months now.

Continue reading ‘Tenet’: Christopher Nolan Says People Who “Fight The Movies” Are The Ones Who Don’t “Get” The Film at The Playlist.

Greetings, fellow exhausteds, and welcome to The Best Films of 2020, a year that, despite being less than 365 days old, has aged so rapidly that Gary Oldman is circling the biopic. Some, uh, unusual stuff happened this year – I don’t know if you noticed – and it made compiling this collective list even more interesting than usual. A record-breaking 34 regular Playlist contributors submitted top tens (you can find the complete list of those to blame/praise for this ranking at the end of the feature).

Continue reading The 25 Best Films Of 2020 at The Playlist.

As you’ve heard by now, Warner Bros.’ game-changing seismic decision to put all their 2021 films out on HBO Max simultaneously with whatever theaters are open next year, not only shocked and angered people in Hollywood, it actually blindsided many actors, directors, and talents too. We’ve already heard that Legendary Pictures were so appalled with the decision they’re threatening to sue Warner Bros. over the releases of “Godzilla Vs.

Continue reading Christopher Nolan Blasts Warner Bros. 2021 Decision & Calls HBO Max “The Worst Streaming Service” at The Playlist.

The pandemic has changed a lot of what we think of when it comes to both making and distributing movies. To release a movie in theaters versus dropping it on streaming or video on demand is a big decision with big repercussions, especially when it comes to tentpole movies. In a recent interview, George Clooney addressed how distribution and production are changing because of the pandemic, and how releasing a film like “Tenet” was “tricky.”

READ MORE: Christopher Nolan Doesn’t Think ‘Tenet’ Performed Badly, But Worries About Studios Jumping To Conclusions

The interview comes from The Hollywood Reporter, where Clooney promoted his upcoming film “The Midnight Sky,” which will be distributed by Netflix, pretty much the only studio not heavily affected by the pandemic in terms of distribution.

Continue reading George Clooney On ‘Tenet’: Encouraging People To Go To Cinemas During A Pandemic Is “Awfully Tricky” at The Playlist.

It’s a sign of the times that the incredibly prolific Clint Eastwood will not release a film that qualifies for the current 2021 Oscar season. His spirit, however, is present in Ron Howard’s disappointing “Hillbilly Elegy,” which pulled the curtain back on reviews and reactions today. To be blunt, “Elegy,” which is based on J.D. Vance’s bestselling memoir, would likely disappear as an award movie any other year.

Continue reading ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ Enters The Oscar Chat, But How Long Will It Stick Around? [Contender Countdown] at The Playlist.

The film hasn’t even officially opened in New York City or Los Angeles, but Warner Bros. has just announced that Christopher Nolan’s action film, “Tenet,” will be arriving on 4K, Blu-ray, and Digital in December.

READ MORE: Christopher Nolan Doesn’t Think ‘Tenet’ Performed Badly, But Worries About Studios Jumping To Conclusions

Obviously, this is huge news for fans of Nolan’s films, but also those who have been waiting ever so patiently for the home release of “Tenet,” as many have avoided the film since it arrived in theaters in September.

Continue reading Christopher Nolan’s ‘Tenet’ Will Arrive On 4K, Blu-Ray & Digital In December at The Playlist.

When “Tenet” finally got released after months of speculations, delays, and talks about saving cinemas, it became clear rather quickly that the blockbuster would not perform as it would have before the pandemic. Now, nearly two months later, Christopher Nolan finally breaks silence on the film’s performance.

READ MORE: AT&T CEO Admits ‘Tenet’ Release Wasn’t A “Home Run” & Is “Not Optimistic” About 2021 Being Better For Films

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times to promote film critic Tom Shone’s new book “The Nolan Variations,” Nolan confessed he doesn’t think the film underperformed.

Continue reading Christopher Nolan Doesn’t Think ‘Tenet’ Performed Badly, But Worries About Studios Jumping To Conclusions at The Playlist.

There are few people in Hollywood that have serious power over the future of the industry. One of those men is John Stankey, the CEO of AT&T. Not only is he in charge of a massive telecom corporation but he’s also at the top of the food chain at a company that owns Warner Media, which controls Warner Bros, HBO, HBO Max, and a variety of other media companies.

Continue reading AT&T CEO Admits ‘Tenet’ Release Wasn’t A “Home Run” & Is “Not Optimistic” About 2021 Being Better For Films at The Playlist.

The truth is, there are a lot of film fans that are still very apprehensive about going to indoor movie theaters and watching a film on the big screen in the US. This is evidenced by the fact that box office numbers have been incredibly low, even by pandemic standards, which has forced many films to be delayed out of the current fall film slate into 2021 and even skipping theaters and going to VOD or streaming.

Continue reading Cinemark Has Reportedly Sold 22,000+ Private “Watch Parties” As Consumers Are Looking For Safer Ways To Enjoy New Films at The Playlist.

As the business week begins today, we’re already seeing massive financial implications from the news of “No Time to Die” being delayed and Cineworld shutting down its US and UK cinemas. And according to a new interview with THR, financial analyst Eric Wold believes that the next two months are going to be a “virtual ghost town” for theatrical releases and that studios need to be willing to take financial risks to ensure that cinemas will be viable when states fully reopen sometime in the future.

Continue reading Analyst Says Studios Have To Be “Willing To Take A Hit” For Theaters To Survive at The Playlist.