With two months to go before the release of “Megalopolis,” things are about to get awkward.

Video has surfaced of director Francis Ford Coppola that shows the legendary director trying to kiss young female extras on the set of his ambitious sci-fi epic. Variety has obtained two videos (posted below) that were taken by a crewmember last year during the filming of a bacchanalian nightclub scene.

Two sources told Variety that Coppola appeared to act with impunity on set. And unlike traditional movies, Coppola financed the entire $120 million budget himself, so there were none of the traditional checks and balances in place. The videos would appear to corroborate a bombshell report in the Guardian that claimed the 85-year-old director “tried to kiss some of the topless and scantily clad female extras” and told them “he was ‘trying to get them in the mood.’” The Guardian story broke right before “Megalopolis” made its world premiere in Competition in Cannes.

The scene in question, which features actress Nathalie Emmanuel, was shot on Feb. 14, 2023, at the Tabernacle, a concert hall in Atlanta. The call sheet, which Variety has reviewed, says the actresses playing female party goers had been “cleared for topless nudity” while others in the scene had been “cleared for scantily clad.”

The sources claim that Coppola’s behavior was unprofessional. One source who was on the set during the nightclub scene estimated that between 150 to 200 people were assembled, including background actors and crew as Coppola started directing the scene. The filmmaker kept leaping up to hug and kiss several women, often inadvertently inserting himself into the shot and ruining it, which the source said was unusual.

“I’ve worked with really important directors and that behavior is uncommon — the most I’ve ever seen any director do is say something like, ‘high energy, guys,'” the source adds. “I’ve never seen anyone on set, and this extends to a camera operator, so much as touch an actor.”

The source said that after multiple takes, Coppola got on a microphone and announced in earshot of everyone in the room, “Sorry, if I come up to you and kiss you. Just know it’s solely for my pleasure.”

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/15201387

James Wan is finally done with ‘Aquaman’ and already has a couple of projects lined up. It’s already been announced that he is adapting “The Call of Cthulhu,” based on the 1928 H.P. Lovecraft short story of the same name. However, Wan has seemingly lined up another film as his potential next project.

Daniel Richtman is reporting that Wan is set to direct “Creature From the Black Lagoon” for Universal. This is a remake of the 1954 classic which tackled a strange prehistoric beast lurking in the depths of the Amazonian jungle and the group of scientists who try to capture the animal to bring it back to civilization for study.

Will Beall, who penned Wan’s ‘Aquaman,’ is writing the screenplay. The film will most likely be part of Universal’s “Monsterverse” which already includes “The Invisible Man” and the upcoming “Wolfman.”

IMAX confirms that Denis Villeneuve's Dune 3 is to release in 2026, though there might be a question mark over its Dune: Messiah title...

If you download this PDF report from the Q2 2024 IMAX Investor Presentation, there are charts showing which films are being produced with IMAX in mind all the way through to the end of 2026.

In a recent interview with BlackTree TV, Feige hinted that the forthcoming Blade movie, which is currently dated for 2025, could be rated R.

“There were some great Blade movies years ago — they were all rated R. So I think that’s, like Deadpool, inherent with the character of Blade,” he said at the time. “For the last two years, as we’ve been trying to crack that movie, the most important thing for us is not rushing it and making sure we are making the right Blade movie.”

...

When asked for an update regarding the film, Feige said, “[We’re] taking the amount of time that it needs. And right now, I don’t think there’s a scoop. If there is, it’s all yours. But Eric Pearson, who’s a great, great writer, is working on a draft right now. That is very exciting. Yeah. so, but we won’t get too excited until it’s really all there because Blade’s a very, very important character. Mahershala [Ali] is an amazing actor who walked in one day and said, ‘I think I wanna be Blade.’ And we wanna find the right way to do that.”

They are:

1. The Terminator (1984)
2. Conan the Barbarian (1982)
3. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
4. Total Recall (1990)
5. Predator (1987)
6. Commando (1985)
7. The Running Man (1987)
8. Pumping Iron (1977)
9. Stay Hungry (1976)
10. The Last Stand (2013)
11. The Expendables 2 (2012)
12. Sabotage (2014)
13. Raw Deal (1986)
14. True Lies (1994)
15. Last Action Hero (1993)
16. Eraser (1996)
17. Maggie (2015)
18. Escape Plan (2013)
19. End of Days (1999)
20. Twins (1988)

Very technical explanation but interesting that no one has done a proper job until now.

In a previous thread @UKFilmNerd@feddit.uk said:

If you download this PDF report from the Q2 2024 IMAX Investor Presentation, there are charts showing which films are being produced with IMAX in mind all the way through to the end of 2026.

And I thought it worth extracting the relevant images (I've kept them high resolution):

2024:

2025:

2026:

A one minute clip and a look at the SDCC exclusive poster.

Looks like it hasn't been delayed after all.

https://www.filmratings.com/search?filmTitle=watchmen

I stopped after ten seconds, I don't want to spoil any more of the film. However, that transforming finger joke has sold it to me! 😆

I wasn't expecting that. Now I'm even more curious...

The latest film from Swedish director Levan Akin (And Then We Danced), Crossing is terrific: a rich and rewarding tapestry of characters and cultures flung together and flourishing.

A “terrifying” new horror movie has released in the US to nearly unanimous praise from critics.

Oddity, an independent film focusing on a blind medium who is grieving the death of their twin sister, was released in the US on Friday (19 June).

The Irish film, which viewers have enthusiastically recommended on social media, currently has a rating of 98 per cent positive on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.

Apple Original Films has won a spirited auction to land The Corsair Code, an original feature film set to star Chris Hemsworth. The film is based on a short story by Jonathan Tropper, which he brought to Hemsworth and his producing partner Ben Grayson.

Hemsworth and Grayson will produce through their Wild State shingle, and Apple Studios will serve as the studio. Tropper will write the screenplay and produce through his shingle Tropper Ink.

The Corsair Code is described as a high-octane, sci-fi mystery adventure, but they are keeping plot specifics under wraps.

Tropper already is in business with an overall TV deal at Apple TV+, where he created and is the showrunner of Your Friends and Neighbors, which is in production, with Mad Men’s Jon Hamm the EP and star of the series. Tropper has two films heading into production this fall: The Wrecking Crew with Angel Manuel Soto directing Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista, and he rewrote Matchbox for Mattel Films with Extraction helmer Sam Hargrave directing. And, oh yeah, Tropper is going to write the Star Wars film that Deadpool & Wolverine’s Shawn Levy will direct. Novelist-screenwriter Tropper scripted the Levy-directed Ryan Reynolds starrer The Adam Project and the Levy-directed This Is Where I Leave You with Jason Bateman and Tina Fey. He also wrote Kodachrome, which starred Ed Harris, Jason Sudeikis and Elizabeth Olsen, and was EP and showrunner for the second and third seasons of Apple TV+’s See, which starred Momoa. Tropper also was co-creator and EP of Banshee.

A group of friends gets together for a weekend in the country to celebrate one of their forthcoming nuptials.

It's a bucks party in the bush with booze, drugs and a blow-up doll — what could go wrong?

Well, plenty, as shown in the new Australian horror flick, Birdeater.

It's the debut feature film from Sydney-based friends Jack Clark and Jim Weir, who told ABC RN's The Screen Show that many of the film's details were inspired by real life.

Clark, who attended a Sydney private school, says: "There are definitely parts of it that are … fragments of stories or often moments of parties that we wanted to re-create. There were never whole images of people, but we definitely stole wholesale from people in our social circles."