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Screenwriter Derek Kolstad wrote around 50 scripts before he finally broke through with the spec screenplay that became John Wick.

It’s an odd profession, screenwriting. There are some who’ve spent years trying to break into it, only to have their work changed to such a degree that their original idea has effectively vanished by the time it reaches the screen. There are others who get paid handsomely by studios to write screenplays that then wind up on a shelf, unused. For every celebrated screenwriter with millions in the bank and awards on their shelves, there are countless others who are behind on their rent and remain largely unknown.

Screenwriter Derek Kolstad, meanwhile, is something of an inspiration. He toiled away for years in the hope of making a career out of writing, and almost gave up when some of the low-budget movies he worked on didn’t bring in much of a salary.

Following a two-hour masterclass at the Cairo Film Festival, Gaspar Noé spoke with Variety about future genres he’d like to tackle: “The main film genres that really would interest me for a future project are documentary, war film, and horror. Probably I should even try to mix those three genres. I also would like to do a movie with young children, or a movie for children.”

The Argentinian director of “Irreversible” (2002) and “Vortex” (2021) had earlier answered questions from British-Iranian critic Mo Abdi, telling the audience of his sold out event: “Kids are like small adults. When we are kids we are in danger. You are exposed to everything. I’m very attached to kids in life, though I don’t have kids. The relationship you have with kids is direct and playful. I would like to do a movie with little kids. They relate to fragility, they relate to...

The blood-thirsty hitchhiker, the escaped psycho with a hook for a hand, the babysitter and the call that is somehow unequivocally coming from inside the house; we all known them. The modern day fables that have shaped our fears and behaviours arguably more than any others. Urban legends that all seem to have sprung out of the American post-war hangover of the 1950s and ’60s, as inequality took seed and the dark side of the new white-picket-fence suburbia slowly set in off-screen. Ed Gein and Ted Bundy and the Moors Murders filled the news. Doubts about our fellow man, and about what they’re capable of. About how we very much aren’t “all in this together”; that the days of blindly trusting one another are all but over. That people, strangers in particular, are more likely to be dangerous than helpful.

And naturally, those cautionary tales bled into culture and filmmaking.

Jeff Goldblum, 25, has forgotten his mantra. At least, his nameless party guest character – dubbed “Man on the Phone” in the screenplay – has. And it’s the way he delivered that line in 1977’s Annie Hall that made him stand out despite only having a few seconds of screen time. Somehow – just by being himself – Jeff Goldblum turned a throwaway bit into one of the funniest lines in one of the funniest films.

As for Jeff Goldblum himself, he says his mantras are “I am grateful” and “Accept, enjoy, enthuse.” And that, across 50 years on the big screen, is as truthful as it gets when it comes to Jeff Goldblum.

Let’s find out: What Happened to…Jeff Goldblum?

Jeff Goldblum was born on October 22nd, 1952 just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of a doctor and a radio broadcaster, the sort of brains and art pairing that perfectly describes the...

Stars: Frank Grillo, Eden Brolin, Melissa Leo, Andy Garcia, Mekhi Phifer, Beau Knapp, George Carroll, Josh Hutcherson, Juan Pablo Raba | Written by John Swab, Santiago Manes Moreno | Directed by John Swab

Long Gone Heroes marks the fifth collaboration between director John Swab and actor Frank Grillo beginning with Body Brokers and most recently One Day as a Lion. They might not be great cinema, but they’ve been well enough received, and more importantly, they’ve proven popular enough that they keep getting money to make more of them.

This time out, Grillo plays Gunner, ex-special forces, ex-husband, and all the other usual exes. His niece Julia is a journalist working on a story about a group violating US sanctions and bringing Venezuelan oil into the country. This gets her grabbed by some very dangerous people.

Complicating matters further is that her mother Olivia is not only a US senator,...

Stars: Linnea Swanson, Lawrence Waller, Doug Waugh, Traci Burr, Ken Brewer, Tom Grindle, Al Zuniga, Bridget Powers | Written by Ken Brewer, Meri Gyetvay | Directed by Ken Brewer

With a title like Death Bitch, you know you’re not about to see a sensitive drama or family-friendly, faith-based film. But in case you had any doubts, the film’s opening moments should dispel them as two would-be rapists jump a streetwalker only to get blown away by a female vigilante.

But that’s not the only violence happening in this part of town tonight. The serial killer known as The South Bay Slasher has claimed another victim as well. These crimes have left Detective Shane Douglas so baffled that, much to his dismay, the chief has assigned him a partner, Detective Maddie Schoefield.

And, since bad things come in threes, South Bay is also the turf of Dante and his gang.

Back in April, JoBlo’s own Kier Gomes – who hosts the JoBlo Originals Live Stream, Friday Night Flicks, on our JoBlo Originals channel – put together an episode of the Deconstructing series that took a look at the 1987 classic The Stepfather. A couple of months ago, we shared the news that Kier also contributed an audio commentary to the new 4K and Blu-ray release of The Stepfather from Scream Factory – and today happens to be the release date for that 4K and Blu-ray! Copies are available at This Link.

Directed by Joseph Ruben from a screenplay by popular crime novelist Donald E. Westlake (who crafted the story with

Carolyn Lefcourt and Death Wish author Brian Garfield), The Stepfather has the following synopsis: Jerry Blake is a family man, but he happens to have a series of families, with each one on the receiving end of his murderous ways. When Jerry sets...

"Star Trek: The Next Generation" debuted on September 28, 1987 to much ballyhoo. A new version of "Star Trek," set a century after the events of the original "Star Trek"? With an all-new U.S.S. Enterprise and an all-new crew? Trekkies were excited, cautiously optimistic that the new show would be a hit. After a few rocky seasons, it was, and "Star Trek: The Next Generation" became a ratings bonanza. Also, while the first "Star Trek" only lasted three seasons, and the 1973 "Star Trek" animated series only lasted two, "Next Generation" would continue for seven year, racking up an impressive 176 episodes. Or 178, if you count the two-hour debut and finale episodes as two episodes each. 

Audiences loved the eight main characters on the show. The Enterprise was captained by the stern Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), and his first in command was William Riker (Jonathan Frakes). Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) was the ship's engineer,...

Studiocanal announces a stunning brand-new 4K restoration of the thrilling and unique western Red Sun as part of the Cult Classics Collection available on 4K Uhd Steelbook, Blu-Ray, DVD & Digital from 9th September to celebrate we are giving away a Steel Book edition!

Billed as the first East meets West Western, and directed by Terence Young, Red Sun is based on a true story from the American Wild West of 1870. When outlaw Link (Charles Bronson) is betrayed by his gang during a train robbery, he is forced by the Japanese Ambassador to help regain a priceless sword stolen by Link’s double-crossing partner Gauche (Alain Delon).

Link and the Ambassador’s bodyguard, Kuroda (Toshiro Mifune), travel the West in pursuit of Gauche, attempting to lure him out by taking his girlfriend (Ursula Andress) as hostage. Although Kuroda plans to kill Gauche straight away, Link needs him alive to find the loot from their last robbery.

Lionsgate has been anxious for the latest incarnation of “The Crow” not to be branded as a remake or reboot, though in returning a dormant screen franchise to life, it does qualify as the second. It is indeed no remake, even if the script this time around takes even more liberties with the source material of J. O’Barr’s original comics than its 1994 big-screen adaptation did. That film is burned into the collective consciousness largely because Brandon Lee died in an on-set accident while making it. His career breakthrough became a memorial that would’ve been poetically morbid even without the stamp of real-life tragedy.

Comparisons driven by sentimental favoritism seldom flatter, so it’s understandable the studio hoped to banish them as far as possible. It was already going to be an uphill struggle for a long-aborning project that cycled through numerous directors, writers and stars over the...

Kim Kahana, the stunt performer, teacher, coordinator and war hero who played Chongo on the kids show Danger Island and doubled for Charles Bronson in several action films, has died. He was 94.

Kahana died Monday of natural causes at his home in Groveland, Florida, his wife, Sandy Kahana, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Kahana, 5-foot-7 and 150 pounds, taught stunts to many thousands of students since the mid-1970s in six-week courses that took place in Chatsworth, California, and Central Florida. Many went on to have thriving careers in show business.

He also had six different black belt degrees — he taught martial arts, too — and worked as a professional bodyguard protecting Hollywood types.

A native of Hawaii, Kahana appeared in his first film as a biker in the Marlon Brando-starring The Wild One (1953) and was an extra in other movies before he realized that stunt performers got paid more than he did.

It’s a bad time to be Eli Roth.

A miscalculation of near-mythic proportions, “Borderlands” has a whopping six percent on Rotten Tomatoes heading into its opening weekend. Those bad reviews (IndieWire gave it a “C-“) are the least of the “Hostel” filmmaker’s problems, as Lionsgate’s misguided video game adaptation has inspired assessments of not only the director’s filmography but also whether his impact on pop culture has been at all valuable.

This ranking can’t account for all of that. If you’re a fan of the types of genre films that Roth makes, read on. If you’re not, do not pass go, do not collect $200, and enjoy the “Borderlands” dogpile — a massive multiplayer online affair now available free of charge.

Last year, Roth’s meaty and murderous “Thanksgiving” did well for the provocateur. The seasonal holiday slasher, starring Nell Verlaque, Patrick Dempsey, and Addison Rae among others,...

Eli Roth is hopeful that 'Borderlands' could be the start of a film franchise.The 52-year-old director has helmed the new movie based on the hit video game of the same name and is convinced that there is scope for more stories to be told should the project be successful when it hits cinemas next month.Speaking to SFX magazine, Eli said: "With multiple 'Borderlands' games, there's so much in the world – it was very difficult to narrow it down just for this story. It took seven years to come up with a draft that everyone was happy with."So my feeling is, any time you start talking about the universe, you can get into trouble because you're not focusing on the movie you're making."But I do believe that there's so much there that, if the fans like it, and it sells, we would love to continue.

Michael Winner’s violent 1974 thriller demonized inner-city living and rationalised bloody revenge, a film that still acts as a telling Republican text

We denizens of the present like to presume a higher degree of moral clarity over the past, but some things don’t require the benefit of hindsight to be correctly assessed. They had Michael Winner’s 1974 film Death Wish dead to rights the first time around, for instance, when a solid faction of critics cried foul at its shameless stoking of reactionary fears about inner-city living.

In one of his two broadsides against the low-budget thriller turned surprise blockbuster, the New York Times’ Vincent Canby branded it “a tackily made melodrama, but it so cannily orchestrates the audience’s responses that it can appeal to law‐and‐order fanatics, sadists, muggers, club women, fathers, older sisters, masochists, policemen, politicians, and, it seems, a number of film critics”. Some...

Actress Camila Morrone (“Daisy Jones & the Six”), the new ‘face’ of Chanel, poses for the French fashion house’s latest ‘Pre-Collection’ campaign for Fall 2024, photographed by Karim Sadli:

A former magazine cover model, Morrone made her acting debut in the feature “Bukowski” (2018) followed by the action film “Death Wish” (2018)…

…and the indie features “Never Goin' Back” (2018) and “Mickey and the Bear” (2019).

Her role as ‘Camila Alvarez-Dunne’ in the Amazon Prime Video limited series “Daisy Jones & the Six” (2023) earned her a nomination for a ‘Primetime Emmy Award’.

Click the images to enlarge…...

Italian directer and writer Mitzi Peirone’s Taormina Film Festival opener Saint Clare employs a number of cues from the story of Joan of Arc, the 15th century warrior and martyr who believed that God had chosen her to lead France to victory in its long-running war with England.

Saint Clare is set in a small town where a solitary, young woman (Bella Thorne) is haunted by voices that lead her to assassinate ill-intended people and get away with it, until her last kill sucks her down a rabbit hole riddled with corruption, the trafficking of young women and visions from the beyond. It’s based on Don Roff’s novel, Clare at Sixteen.

Peirone, who took a crack at co-writer Guinevere Turner’s (American Psycho) version, explained, “The Italian in me had to bring European, Joan of Arc, had to bring history, had to bring Renaissance paintings and chiaroscuro,...

Back in April, JoBlo’s own Kier Gomes – who hosts the JoBlo Originals Live Stream, Friday Night Flicks, on our JoBlo Originals channel and over on our Rumble channel – put together an episode of the Deconstructing series that took a look at the 1987 classic The Stepfather. Now Scream Factory has revealed the list of bonus features that will be included on their upcoming 4K and Blu-ray release of The Stepfather – and that list includes an audio commentary by Kier Gomes! The street date for this release is September 10th, and copies are available for pre-order at This Link.

Directed by Joseph Ruben from a screenplay by popular crime novelist Donald E. Westlake (who crafted the story with

Carolyn Lefcourt and Death Wish author Brian Garfield), The Stepfather has the following synopsis: Jerry Blake is a family man, but he happens to have a series of families, with each one on...

When Paramount Pictures was finally absorbed by a conglomerate in 1966, it had been a long-running Hollywood powerhouse that was now contending with a new set of challenges.

Perfectly described by historian Robert Sklar as “the house Adolph Zukor built,” Paramount was one of the first major studios. As its leader, Zukor set in motion both industrial vertical integration along with a carefully constructed machinery for curating and maintaining celebrity image. Though Zukor was no longer chairman of the board by the time Gulf Western swept in to take over Paramount, the founding mogul’s influence still permeated the studio gates.

At a time when Hollywood was searching for a new identity — founding moguls were gone or largely retired, shattered self-censorship practices were making way for a modern ratings system, studios were being gobbled up by companies outside of the entertainment realm — Paramount managed to prevail in glorious fashion. Within a couple years,...

New England filmmaker, Geno McGahee, is known for his Scary Tales franchise, beginning with his 2008 original Scary Tales, followed by Scary Tales: Last Stop, Scary Tales: Dead Zone and the upcoming October release, Scary Tales: Dark Walker. The interest in the series has led McGahee to release a series, featuring 8 episodes in season one and the same expected for season two, which is currently in development.

McGahee noted that “my anthology films have really taken off and it has led me to this decision to start a series. I’ve always been a fan of shows like Tales From The Darkside and Tales From The Crypt and I’m hoping to produce something similar with my own creations coming to life and entertaining the audience.”

Scary Tales: The Series has just hit Tubi and is already getting a lot of viewership, staying true to the success of the franchise. It...

With things being so slow at the box office in the early going of 2024, you would half expect to hear people reporting sightings of tumbleweeds rolling across the floors of their local movie theaters. Praise to the cinema gods, May is finally arriving with a promising crop of tentpoles to help rejuvenate the marketplace, starting with director David Leitch's much-buzzed-about '80s series turned contemporary action-comedy "The Fall Guy" (you can read our own Jacob Hall's glowing review of the picture here). But never fear! If you're searching for something to watch at home, too, Netflix will provide in bountiful amounts.

Well, sort of.

Truth be told, next month is looking kind of sparse when it comes to Netflix exclusives outside the purview of shows with firmly established fandoms (see: the latest season of "Bridgerton") or the service's usual smattering of specialty offerings, including live comedy events and ongoing anime series.

At long last, the first trailer for the "Borderlands" movie has arrived. Directed by Eli Roth, this is the long-awaited adaptation of the very popular series of video games from Gearbox and 2K. Lionsgate has been getting the film ready behind the scenes for several years, and with the release date set for this summer, the studio has finally decided to show us what they've cooked up. Check it out for yourself above.

There is much to discuss here. For anyone who has played the games, Roth and the filmmakers certainly nailed a lot of the look. Claptrap (the robot character voiced by Jack Black) looks like himself. The world looks like the world of the games. It feels right in that sense. It also feels, cinematically, like a mix between Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy" films and "Mad Max." Whether or not it's anywhere near as good as those...

This article contains major spoilers for the finale of "True Detective: Night Country."

In 2019, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) accused the police in Nome, Alaska of "a systemic and disastrous failure" to protect Native women. The accusation came in the aftermath of the rape of an Inupiaq woman named Clarice Hardy, a case she claimed was not investigated thoroughly by law enforcement. The accusation came less than two weeks after an AP investigation was released following multiple complaints from Alaska Native women from Nome and the surrounding villages, all claiming that their reports of sexual assault were not "investigated aggressively."

A cursory Google search will bring similar reports from Indigenous communities across the globe. The National Crime Information Center reported that, in 2016, there were 5,712 reports of missing American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls. However, the US Department of Justice's federal missing person database, NamUs, only logged...

Pictures: Universal Pictures

Netflix kickstarted the year as normal by rotating its library of movies. Among the movies that came to Netflix on December 31st and January 1st were 15 movies from the 1970s considered classics. Here’s a rundown of all those movies that dropped.

The movies seem to come to Netflix through a range of different distributors, including Paramount and Universal Pictures. It comes as Netflix has seemingly been getting greater access to some of the biggest Hollywood studios’ back library of IPs as of late. We’ve seen almost all providers step up their licensing to Netflix in various forms, whether that be through licensing newer movies, older movies like the ones below, or titles from their vast TV catalog.

In alphabetical order, then, here’s a rundown of all the new movies that recently touched down that were first released in the 1970s. Descriptions of each movie...

Joel Kinnaman as Godlock in Silent Night. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Lionsgate

For years, film buffs have enjoyed arguing about whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie. The “yeas” emphasize when it’s happening and what’s going on there besides the mayhem between Bruce and the baddies. The “nays” say it’s the polar opposite of the decades of seasonal feelgood spirit exemplified by everything from It’S A Wonderful Life to what the Hallmark Channel cranks out annually for the holidays. For them, if it ain’t gooey, it ain’t Yuley. Well, whichever camp you’re in, you’ll vote the same way for this gift from A-list action writer, producer and director John Woo, Silent Night.

Silent Night serves as a two-edged title. Besides the main events occurring on consecutive Christmases (for which that title ranks among the most popular carols), the entire film plays out without a single spoken word.

Silent Night is an action-thriller film directed by John Woo, from a screenplay by Robert Archer Lynn. The Christmas-themed film revolves around a man who witnesses the murder of his young son when he gets caught in the crossfire of two rival gangs. On that day, the man was also injured and he lost his voice because of that. Now, he is on the path of revenge and is trying to kill everyone involved. Silent Night stars Joel Kinnaman in the role with Kid Cudi, Catalina Sandino Moreno, and Harold Torres in supporting roles. So, if you love the most silent action movie here are some similar movies you could watch next.

Kaabil (Hulu) Credit – Filmkraft Productions Pvt. Ltd

Synopsis: The blissful married lives of Supriya and Rohan, a visually impaired couple, come to a halt when the former is raped by men with political links. When she commits suicide,...

John Carver will kill again! Director Eli Roth has confirmed that his recent slasher hit "Thanksgiving" is indeed getting a sequel. Sony Pictures went ahead and made it official, with the follow-up expected to hit theaters sometime in 2025. Roth took to Instagram to personally share the news with his fans in a brief video, expressing his gratitude to everyone who made the first film a success.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Eli Roth (@realeliroth)

Plot details remain under wraps, but (and not to spoil anything) the ending of the first film was just ambiguous enough to leave the door open for a follow-up. No word yet on who, if any, of the cast members from the first film will return for "Thanksgiving 2." Roth also said in the video that the sequel will arrive in 2025 "probably around Thanksgiving," although a firm release date has not yet been set.

Director Eli Roth is returning for seconds of “Thanksgiving.” He’s cooking up a sequel to his holiday-themed slasher film, with the follow-up set to open theatrically in 2025. It’s unclear which — if any — any cast members will be back.

“Beeaking News! John Carver will kill again!” the director captioned a video on Instagram, referring to the film’s villain. “Thank you everyone who supported Original Horror in theaters!!! Go see it now on the big screen while it’s in cinemas, sequel set for release in 2025! Taking a year to really get the script right, working on it starting today!”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Eli Roth (@realeliroth)

“Thanksgiving” debuted earlier in November to $10 million in North America and has grossed $30 million globally to date, which isn’t necessarily a blockbuster result. But the film cost $15 million to produce, so Sony’s TriStar Pictures, who backed the original,...

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a film as unrelentingly mean and ugly as Silent Night. Action maestro John Woo’s return to Hollywood filmmaking after twenty years away is one of the year’s most stunning disappointments, a cruel slog with plenty of bullets and blood but none of the soul for which Woo was once famous.

Joel Kinnaman is Brian Godlock, a man whose young son was struck and killed by a stray bullet from a gang fight on Christmas Day in the front yard of their California home. In the film’s opening sequence, Godlock chases the gang members down but is shot in the throat and left for dead. He doesn’t die, but his voice is stolen from him. Over the course of the year, the formerly mild-mannered electrician bulks up and turns himself into a lethal weapon, ready to go...

On paper, the action and horror genres seem like they'd be strange bedfellows. After all, the general aim of action films is to provide adrenaline-fueled thrills, while horror movies are intended to disturb, scare, and unnerve.

Yet in practice, the genres blend far better and far more often than may be expected. I can still remember schoolyard chums excitedly recounting the ways in which Bruce Willis' John McClane dispatched terrorists in "Die Hard 2" (such as when he shoves an icicle into a baddie's eye), kills that would be wholly appropriate in a "Friday the 13th" or "A Nightmare on Elm Street" film. Hollywood producers certainly saw the connections; Renny Harlin, who directed "Die Hard 2," won the gig after making horror films like "Prison" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master."

In 2023, the action and horror genres have long been considered an excellent peanut-butter-and-chocolate combo, with much cross-pollination happening within them.

"The Equalizer" has been a sturdy franchise for Sony over the last decade. Based on the 1980s CBS series starring Edward Woodward, the films are a model of narrative simplicity: Denzel Washington plays Robert McCall, a world-weary yet principled ex-CIA operative who bounces around the globe to help powerless people overcome viciously corrupt criminals. They're self-contained vigilante yarns powered exclusively by one of Hollywood's most magnetic stars in full-on badass mode. Aside from their extrajudicial nature, they're basically Charles Bronson's "Death Wish" movies absent the racism and wretched treatment of women.

As such, they're utterly critic-proof, and Washington, a two-time Oscar winner who's widely considered to be one of our finest actors, shows no compunction about playing to the cheap seats. He knows audiences dig him in this kind of badass role, and, thus far, he's been proven right at the box office. The first two films (barely...

A new episode of our Best Horror Party Movies video series has just been released, and with this one we’re looking back at director James Wan’s 2007 revenge thriller Death Sentence (watch it Here). Now, you may be wondering, “How can this be a party movie when it’s incredibly depressing?” Well, to find out how we party to this movie, check out the video embedded above!

Directed by James Wan from a screenplay by Ian Mackenzie Jeffers that was based on a novel by Death Wish author Brian Garfield, Death Sentence has the following synopsis: Nick Hume is on his way home from a hockey game with his son, Brendan, and stops for gasoline. Helplessly he sees a street thug kill Brendan while robbing the station. Believing the justice system will fail him, Nick goes after the killer himself, setting off a war between him and the killer’s older brother.

Writer-director Nicholas Maggio may not have intended to be self-critical when, fairly early in his debut feature “Mob Land,” he has one character observe to another about their failing small Southern town, “This whole place has become a fucking cliché.” But the longer this slackly paced rural noir continues, the more that dialogue seems in retrospect like fair warning. Borrowing freely from “No Country for Old Men,” “Collateral” and maybe a dozen or so other superior films, Maggio has cobbled together a modestly diverting, effectively atmospheric but blatantly derivative crime drama sprinkled with a few joltingly nasty plot twists.

It helps a lot that the first-time feature filmmaker has cast just about every role with an actor fully committed to their part. Better still, some of the briefly glimpsed supporting players do their bit to ratchet up the suspense by conveying sweaty desperation, darkly comical fury, or both.

At one point,...

For a time in the 1990s, a film adaptation of a John Grisham novel was guaranteed to turn a tidy profit at the box office, if not mushroom into a full-on blockbuster. "The Firm," "The Pelican Brief" and "The Client" all made loads of money off of a built-in audience that just had to see how the lawyer-turned-bestselling author's latest book was brought to life by Hollywood's biggest stars. Tom Cruise, Gene Hackman, Denzel Washington, Julia Roberts, Tommy Lee Jones, and Susan Sarandon, among many others, were enlisted to turn these page-turners into big-screen spectacles. They were never better than over-produced B movies, but you didn't care because the material was never more than risible. Grisham wrote disposable legal thrillers that moved fast enough to get you past their myriad implausibilities, and there was nothing wrong with this.

"A Time to Kill" was a different animal. Based on Grisham's debut novel,...

There’s a moment in Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” (in theaters now), where Niels Bohr, the famous Danish physicist (played by Kenneth Branagh) who developed the model of the atom, asks a young J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), years before he would gain notoriety and infamy as the father of the atomic bomb: “Can you hear the music?” At that specific moment, the score by composer Ludwig Göransson quite literally soars – it’s beautiful and lilting but soon turns more menacing, even ominous. In that single musical moment (clocking in at less than two minutes on the official album), the entire movie – how the scientific idealism that gives way to untold horror – elegantly unfurls. And Göransson cements himself as one of Nolan’s most essential collaborators.

TheWrap spoke to Göransson about what it was like collaborating with Nolan a second time, why it’s Ok to use electronics in the...

Adapted from the author’s 1999 debut novel, “God Is A Bullet” is the first screen translation of a work by one Boston Teran, a prolific but pseudononymous scribe of popular page-turners. Those tomes have been well-received by thriller fans, though others have speculated they might be a genre put-on penned by possibly more than one well-known literary figure. Nick Cassavetes’ slick adaptation certainly maintains the book’s mix of lurid incident and pontificating pretentiousness — albeit without the kind of intensity that might have made this far-fetched story credible, or the atmospheric style that might’ve pulled it off as a fevered nightmare à la David Lynch instead.

These 156 minutes, with cop Nicolaj Coster-Waldau and escaped captive Maika Monroe pursuing the cult of devil-worshipping scumbags who’ve kidnapped his daughter, are not exactly dull. But they are rather ludicrous, without being much fun. It’s hard not to imagine this overlong,...

Jamie Foxx in God Is A Bullet Photo: WayWard Entertainment From the director of The Notebook, a sensitive, female-skewing all-timer of a love story, comes God Is A Bullet, in which every woman onscreen gets repeatedly punched, kicked, sometimes raped, or murdered by a shotgun blast. They’re not the...

Jamie Foxx in God Is A BulletPhoto: WayWard Entertainment

From the director of The Notebook, a sensitive, female-skewing all-timer of a love story, comes God Is A Bullet, in which every woman onscreen gets repeatedly punched, kicked, sometimes raped, or murdered by a shotgun blast. They’re not the only...

Revenge thrillers tend to be most effective when they’re lean and mean. Such is definitely not the case with the new film from writer-director Nick Cassavetes, his first since 2014’s The Other Woman. Based on Boston Teran’s well-received 1999 novel, God Is a Bullet squanders its provocative premise with a ridiculously bloated running time (155 minutes, and you feel every one of them) and gratuitous violence that lends a cartoonish sheen to a story aspiring to gritty realness. Despite its talented cast, who demonstrate a willingness to go for broke in their portrayals, the film comes across like a pretentious version of an ‘80s-era Charles Bronson actioner.

Actually, Bronson would have been perfect for the role of detective Bob Hightower (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), whose ex-wife and her new husband are brutally murdered by the members of a cult who seemed to have watched The Hills Have Eyes too many times. In...

Actress Camila Morrone ("Daisy Jones & The Six") poses for the June 2023 issue of "InStyle" (Mexico) magazine, photographed by Graham Dunn:

As a young model, Morrone made her acting debut in the feature "Bukowski" (2018)...

...and subsequently appeared in the films "Death Wish" (2018)...

...and "Never Goin' Back" (2018). 

She played 'Mickey Peck' in the feature "Mickey and the Bear" (2019).

She played 'Ruby' in the feature "Valley Girl" (2020) 

After being cast as 'Camila Dunne' in "Daisy Jones  the Six" (2023), Morrone indicated she would focus her career on acting rather than modeling.

Click the images to enlarge...

Genre regular Eli Roth has another horror project coming our way – but this one won’t be nearly as brutal or bloody as the likes of Cabin Fever or Hostel. Instead, it’s some “gateway horror” entertainment that comes in the form of an animated series called Fright Krewe. Said to be aimed at “older children”, the first season of Fright Krewe will consist of ten episodes that will be released through both the Hulu and Peacock streaming services. A premiere date has not yet been announced.

The Wrap reports that Roth has teamed up with Dreamworks and author James Frey to bring this series to the screen – and they also point out that Frey is a rather controversial figure. His books A Million Little Pieces and My Friend Leonard were initially marketed as memoirs, but it was soon revealed that large portions of them were either exaggerated or made up.

In HBO’s Jason Isbell doc, he and fellow singer-songwriter Amanda Shires seem to court marital disaster debating the best word for a lyric (spoiler: their union survives). Writing is high stakes for Isbell. “If I was makin’ people dance, I wouldn’t sit there and waste my time,” he says, laughing cautiously. “But they’re not out there dancin’ — I gotta get those prepositions right.”

He does on Weathervanes, his brutally beautiful ninth studio album. Its songs tremble with anger, desperation, and fear; characters wrestle with regret and unhealthy appetites,...

Jason Isbell seems to have intended the self-produced Weathervanes as a long-overdue showcase for the 400 Unit as an ensemble. Freed from the strictures of longtime producer Dave Cobb’s trademark warm-and-mellow style, the band covers more ground than ever on their sixth studio album, from the moody ’80s-style jangle-pop of “Save the World” to the hushed folk of “Cast Iron Skillet” to the Crazy Horse-meets-neo-psychedelia of “Miles.”

The musicianship is sparkling throughout, with keyboardist Derry deBorja supplying a dizzying range of background textures while Isbell and guitarist Sadler Vaden similarly flaunt their chops on tracks like “Vestavia Hills.” On “This Ain’t It,” the band struts its way through an upbeat, funky, early-’70s-style classic-rock groove, bongos and all, with effortlessness. What’s more, Isbell himself is in the finest voice of his career, his soulful, husky bellow betraying a new level of desperation and grit on “Death Wish” and...

What would you do if a monster took your loved ones from you? Some might not like to admit it, but pre-emptive fantasies of retribution have a cathartic quality, giving us a sense that we could take control of the narrative in a dreaded scenario. Perhaps this is why revenge thrillers are so popular. They allow us to vicariously live out such fantasies while also taking a moral standpoint, as most of us know that we would never act upon these dark reveries. It is queasily satisfying watching scumbags and murderers getting their comeuppance, even if a film ultimately comes down on the side of "vigilantism is bad."

Most of us like to think we are good and moral people and we know that taking the law into our own hands is fundamentally wrong. Not all such movies arrive at that conclusion. When "Death Wish" was released in 1974, it was...

Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit have unveiled “They Wait,” a previously unheard song from the recording sessions for 2020’s Reunions. Stream it below.

A scorching rocker, “They Wait” tells the separate stories of a man and a woman before they find each other and discover romance. “Ain’t it something when morning comes,” Isbell sings. “And desire becomes a speck of hope.”

“They Wait” is featured in the new documentary Jason Isbell: Running with Our Eyes Closed, premiering tonight at 8:00 p.m. Et/Pt on HBO and HBO Max. The docufilm goes behind the scenes of how Reunions was made, while also pulling back the curtain on Isbell’s childhood in rural Alabama and his struggles with alcoholism while a member of Drive-By Truckers, as well as his relationship with his wife (and acclaimed artist) Amanda Shires.

Isbell and The 400 Unit are set to release their next album, Weathervanes,...

The slasher and the actioner seem like two disparate types of movies, however, both often feature a high degree of suspense, lengthy chases, and a lot of death. A slasher villain will hunt down hapless victims, whereas an action hero may go after one enemy or a whole group of them. Grisly kills and an assortment of weapons are also to be expected.

Now, there are some action movies that infuse more slasher elements than others. Classics like The Terminator and Predator are unmistakably modeled after slashers, but they’re not the only ones. Others take on the traits of slashers more than their peers, ultimately creating a more unique viewing experience.

The following ten lesser seen movies give action and slasher fans the best of both worlds.

Silent Rage (1982)

The first of two Chuck Norris vehicles here is is the fan-favorite Silent Rage. In Michael Miller‘s actioner, a...

Los Angeles, CA – Ronnie Gene Blevins has teamed up with Brendan Reynolds to launch “Love That Guy!” a new podcast show that celebrates the journeymen actors. The ones that are seen on film and television that make us say, “Hey… Love That Guy!”

The series launched with episode 1 in February of 2023, with Ronnie and Brendan sitting down to talk with star Steven Ogg. In March, episode 2 aired with star Timothy V. Murphy, Episode 3 aired with star Pat Healy, and Episode 4 aired with star Theo Rossi.

The “Love That Guy” podcast series will air every other Friday at midnight Pacific Standard Time. Upcoming guests in the next two weeks include Nick Stahl and C. Thomas Howell. Airing on Apple Podcasts and most other podcast platforms: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/love-that-guy/id1672554618

Ronnie Gene Blevins starred in “Death in Texas” with Bruce Dern, “The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It,...

Clockwise from Upper Left: John Wick (Lionsgate), Death Wish, Taken (20th Century Fox), Lady Snowblood Graphic: AVClub Revenge. It’s one of the easiest character motivations to understand. And there’s no dirth of reasons why a big screen character would swear revenge; maybe their daughter was kidnapped (Taken), maybe...

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit will release the new album Weathervanes on June 9, but it’s the creation of Isbell’s 2020 album Reunions that’s depicted in a new documentary coming to HBO. Jason Isbell: Running With Our Eyes Closed debuts April 7 at 8 p.m. on the premium cable network and will stream on HBO Max. A trailer for the film dropped today.

Directed by Sam Jones, who chronicled the creative tension among the members of Wilco in 2002’s I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, Running With Our Eyes...

Note: Today marks Bruce Willis’s 68th birthday. We wanted to take a moment to wish the icon a very happy birthday and reflect on his career:

Here at JoBlo – we love Bruce Willis. When we heard back in March of 2022 that he would step back from acting due to his tragic Aphasia diagnosis, we were as shocked as everyone else, even if there were signs that things weren’t great with Willis going back a number of years. His last truly prominent role was M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass in 2019, while his last lead role was in Eli Roth’s Death Wish. Since then, it’s been chiefly VOD movies for Willis, where his roles were secondary at best. With his recent frontotemporal dementia diagnosis, we now know the truth.

Whatever the case, we here at JoBlo Originals wish to extend our very best to the man and his family at this difficult time.

While Camila Morrone has been in several films like "Death Wish," "Mickey and the Bear," and "Valley Girl," her role in the new Prime Video series "Daisy Jones & The Six" marks her official TV debut. In the series - which is based on the hit 2019 novel of the same name by Taylor Jenkins Reid - the model-turned-actor plays Camila Dunne, the wife of aspiring rock star Billy Dunne (Sam Claflin).

Since the couple's love story plays a big part in the show, it's only natural viewers are curious about Morrone's real-life romances. So, who is she dating? At the moment, Morrone appears to be single and focusing on her acting career, but she was previously romantically linked to model Fai Khadra and Leonardo DiCaprio. Although she only appeared to have a brief fling with Khadra, Morrone dated DiCaprio for four years.

If you want to learn more about Morrone's past relationships,...