There are bad thrillers that gradually reveal their stupidity, and then there is “The Runner,” which starts with Gal Gadot jogging through London and spends roughly the next 90 minutes desperately hoping that if she runs fast enough, nobody will notice how idiotic any of this is. She cannot.

Directed, somehow, by Kevin Macdonald, the usually persuasive filmmaker behind “Touching the Void,” “The Last King of Scotland,” and “State of Play,” “The Runner” is the sort of embarrassing paycheck gig that makes you wonder what attracted a once-formidable filmmaker beyond the obvious.

Continue reading ‘The Runner’ Review: Gal Gadot Runs Around London In Kevin Macdonald’s Embarrassingly Dumb Thriller at The Playlist.

It speaks volumes about his religious upbringing, but few filmmakers have explored as many variations on guilt, shame, self-deception, and potential redemption as Paul Schrader has. And the first-look clip from “The Basics Of Philosophy” introduces Jack Huston as the latest isolated man attempting to reason his way around his sins. Schrader’s new drama will make its world premiere out of competition at the Venice Film Festival on September 4.

Continue reading ‘The Basics Of Philosophy’ First Look Clip: Jack Huston Confronts The “Gift” Of Guilt In Paul Schrader’s Latest at The Playlist.

Twenty years after Sofia Coppola’s candy-colored “Marie Antoinette” arrived in theaters, MUBI has unveiled the first clip from a new documentary that returns to Versailles through the perspective of Coppola’s late mother, filmmaker Eleanor Coppola.

Directed by Eleanor, “Making Marie Antoinette” draws from approximately 80 hours of footage she shot during the film’s 2005 production. The first look goes behind the scenes of an awkward bedroom sequence between Marie Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst) and Louis XVI (Jason Schwartzman), with the actors and Sofia Coppola joking as they prepare to shoot.

Continue reading ‘Making Marie Antoinette’ First Look Clip: Sofia Coppola Revisits Her Landmark Film Through Her Mother’s Eyes at The Playlist.

AMC+ and Catherine Zeta-Jones are teaming up for a new thriller series titled “Kill Jackie” coming to the streaming service next month, and they’ve sent over a new trailer to get prospective audiences primed for what the visually striking show is all about, from the director of “Killing Eve,” Damon Thomas and based on the novel “The Price You Pay” by author Nick Harkaway.

Continue reading ‘Kill Jackie’ Trailer: Catherine Zeta-Jones Has A Team Of Ruthless Assassins Hunting Her In Action Thriller Series Coming October 2 To AMC+ at The Playlist.

“Avengers: Doomsday” is heading to theaters in December, and the big MCU event film has directors Joe Russo and Anthony Russo back in the fold to help the studio cap the Multiverse Saga off with two more “Avengers” installments. We’ve known for a longtime that Marvel had to pivot quickly from Destin Daniel Cretton‘s “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” as they decided against recasting Jonathan Majors‘ Kang (actor was fired after an altercation with his then girlfiend that led to court proceedings) and went for Doctor Doom (played by Robert Downey Jr.

Continue reading Joe Russo Admits Filming ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ Without A Finished Script, Relying On Improvisation & Rehearsals To Flesh Out Scenes With Actors at The Playlist.

If anyone missed the memo that we live in the information ecosystem that Rupert Murdoch built, the postscript montage at the end of “Ink” lays out exactly what havoc he wrought on the world. Lest any audience member be unable to draw the parallels for themselves, a rapid-fire edit lays the blame for everything from spreading misinformation to elevating fringe extremists to the mainstream at his feet; while it’s chilling to draw a direct line to the contemporary nightmare, it gilds the lily.

Continue reading ‘Ink’ Review: Danny Boyle’s Punk-Rock Rupert Murdoch Drama Moves Fast, But The Headlines Don’t Always Stick [Venice] at The Playlist.

As part of their recent “Mayday” interview with The Playlist, directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein briefly talked to our Mike DeAngelo about their earlier iteration of the “Flash” movie script before it was reworked by Christina Hodson (the two ended up with story credit on the DC Comics film).

The big kicker with their take on the “Flash” would have seen a version of Bruce Wayne where he had never become Batman, and would have just been this billionaire playboy having to take on the heroic persona (assumed to have been played by another actor).

Continue reading John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein Say Their Version Of The ‘Flash’ Movie Would Have Had An “Aimless” Non-Batman Take On Bruce Wayne [Interview] at The Playlist.

Siân Heder returns with her first feature since the Oscar-winning “CODA,” this time turning to the landmark disability rights movement of the 1970s. Apple Original Films has released the teaser trailer for “Being Heumann,” starring Ruth Madeley as pioneering disability rights activist Judy Heumann.

READ MORE: 88 Must-See Movies This Fall: ‘Dune: Part Three,’ ‘Digger,’ ‘Avengers: Doomsday,’ ‘The Mis-Adventures Of Cliff Booth’ & More

Based on true events, “Being Heumann” centers on the historic 1977 Section 504 sit-in, when disabled activists occupied a federal building in San Francisco to force the government to implement long-delayed civil rights protections.

Continue reading ‘Being Heumann’ Teaser Trailer: Ruth Madeley Leads Siân Heder’s Disability Rights Drama With Mark Ruffalo at The Playlist.

This week sees the filmmaking duo of John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (“Game Night,” “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves”) with their Cold War era action-comedy “Mayday” starring Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branghan, as the latter plays a Soviet man obsessed with America attempting to help a downed American pilot get to safety after he crash lands in enemy terrority.

The Playlist’s own Mike DeAngelo got a chance to speak with the directors as they’re promoting the new Apple TV flick arriving on September 4 and he specificially asked them about a hypotheical return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, after helping to launch the Tom Holland era of Spidey by working on the “Spider-Man: Homecoming” script (having both story and screenplay credits).

Continue reading ‘Mayday’ Directors John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein “Would Never Say No” To MCU Return After Working On ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ [Interview] at The Playlist.

There are horror movies you admire from a polite distance, and then there are movies that feel like they were built in a lab specifically to hit your particular pleasure centers. “Onslaught” is very much the latter for anyone raised on John Carpenter, James Cameron, gnarly, practical-minded action horror, and the idea that a military conspiracy can always stand to get a little weirder.

READ MORE: ‘Onslaught’ Review: Adam Wingard Militarizes The Action-Slasher In A Gloriously Scuzzy Midnight Madness Movie

Director Adam Wingard has never exactly hidden his affection for those worlds, but “Onslaught” feels like him taking the keys back after years in the franchise machine and flooring it.

Continue reading Adria Arjona & Adam Wingard Talk ‘Onslaught’ Influences, A Shared ‘Guest’ Universe & The Unmade ‘Face/Off’ Sequel [Interview] at The Playlist.

HBO has released the official teaser for “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” the eight-episode first season of its new adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s fantasy series.

READ MORE: 62 TV Shows To Watch This Fall: ‘VisionQuest,’ ‘Blade Runner 2099,’ ‘East Of Eden,’ ‘Pride And Prejudice,’ & More

HBO announced the title in March, confirming its plan to structure each season around one of Rowling’s individual books. The opening season adapts the 1997 novel published in the United States as “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” It will debut this Christmas on HBO and stream on HBO Max in available markets.

Continue reading ‘Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone’ Teaser: HBO’s Wizarding World Series Arrives This Christmas at The Playlist.

Sometimes the most effective weapon is convincing the enemy you have weapons that don’t actually exist. That’s the basis of “Fortitude,” a new World War II espionage thriller from Simon West (“Con Air,” “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”) about the elaborate Allied deception campaign that helped clear the way for D-Day.

READ MORE: 62 TV Shows To Watch This Fall: ‘VisionQuest,’ ‘Blade Runner 2099,’ ‘East Of Eden,’ ‘Pride And Prejudice,’ & More

Written by Simon Afram, the film stars Matthew Goode and Ed Skrein as British intelligence operatives Thomas Argyll “TAR” Robertson and Dudley Clarke, the architects of an audacious plan designed to fool Nazi Germany about where the Allies intended to invade Europe.

Continue reading ‘Fortitude’ Trailer: Matthew Goode, Ed Skrein & Nicolas Cage Wage A War Of Deception In Simon West’s WWII Thriller at The Playlist.

Over the weekend, we learned that Tom Cruise would be officially back in the driver’s seat as Cole Trickel for a sequel to “Days of Thunder” alongside Anne Hathaway (“The Odyssey”) and to promote the NASCAR project helmed by Jonathan Levine, the actor recently spoke with sports world podcaster Pat McAfee at Daytona and revealed his thoughts on the recent handshake promise to exhibiotors by Paramount-Skydance‘s David Ellison to keep releasing 30 feature films per year after the merger with Warner Bros.

Continue reading Tom Cruise Endorses Paramount-Skydance’s Handshake Promise To Release 30 Films Per Year Post-Merger: “I Think It’s Awesome…They’ll Deliver” at The Playlist.

Actor/director/producer George Clooney is attending the Venice Film Festival to receive a lifetime achievement award (is being presented a Golden Lion on Wednesday), and as you’d expect, was all too prepared to speak to the press at the Italian event, musing on various topics making the rounds of Hollywood and beyond. He not only continued about preaching the danger of AI, but went on to speak about the looming merger between Paramount-Skydance and Warner Bros.

Continue reading George Clooney Believes AI Will “Hurt Us,” Supports Mark Ruffalo While Questioning If Paramount/WBD Merger Will Even Close: “Going To Be Very Tricky” at The Playlist.

Zach Cregger knows “Resident Evil” fans are watching him closely. The filmmaker behind “Barbarian” and “Weapons” is an avid player himself. Still, his upcoming Sony Pictures adaptation isn’t recreating any particular game, nor is it built around the franchise’s familiar protagonists. That has already generated some consternation among the faithful.

Speaking during a Live Reddit Q&A in Los Angeles Monday night, Cregger acknowledged the scrutiny and repeatedly stressed that making the movie his own doesn’t mean he’s indifferent to what longtime fans want.

Continue reading Zach Cregger Says ‘Resident Evil’ Borrows From ‘RE4’ & ‘RE7,’ Addresses Fan Concerns: “I Feel Like I’m Running For Office” at The Playlist.

Long before Fox News, social media, and online clickbait, Rupert Murdoch and editor Larry Lamb helped transform journalism by giving readers exactly what they wanted—whether it was good for them or not. The trailer for Danny Boyle’s “Ink” rewinds to the volatile birth of modern tabloid culture and the reinvention of The Sun as a populist media juggernaut.

READ MORE: ‘Ink’ First Look: Danny Boyle Says His Rupert Murdoch Drama Explores “The Future Of The Truth”

Guy Pearce stars as the young Murdoch, who acquires the struggling British newspaper in 1969 and recruits Jack O’Connell’s Lamb to turn it into the biggest paper in the world.

Continue reading ‘Ink’ Trailer: Guy Pearce & Jack O’Connell Reinvent The News In Danny Boyle’s Rupert Murdoch Drama at The Playlist.

Robert Pattinson is currently in the middle of one of the busiest stretches of his career, bouncing between major studio tentpoles and filmmaker-driven projects with barely a break between them. But according to the actor, that run emerged from a period when things suddenly went very quiet—and forced him to rethink what he actually wanted to do.

Speaking to GQ, Pattinson reflected on the stretch following the Hollywood strikes, when he had been preparing to make Adam McKay’s political serial-killer satire “Average Height, Average Build.” The project, which Netflix announced in 2023 with Pattinson, Amy Adams, Robert Downey Jr., Forest Whitaker, and Danielle Deadwyler attached, ultimately fell apart before production.

Continue reading Robert Pattinson Says He “Recalibrated” His Career After Adam McKay Serial Killer Film Fell Apart: “I Don’t Care About Doing Big Movies Or Leads” at The Playlist.

Netflix has released the full trailer for “East of Eden,” Zoe Kazan’s seven-episode adaptation of John Steinbeck’s sprawling 1952 novel, with Florence Pugh leading the generational family saga as its formidable antiheroine, Cathy Ames.

READ MORE: ‘East Of Eden’ New Looks: Florence Pugh, Christopher Abbott & Mike Faist Lead Netflix Series

“I believe there are monsters born in this world to human parents,” Pugh’s Cathy says in the new trailer, reciting words drawn directly from Steinbeck’s novel.

Continue reading ‘East Of Eden’ Trailer: Florence Pugh Is A “Monster” Without Kindness Or Conscience In Netflix Epic at The Playlist.

Following the breakout horror hit “Barbarian” and the narratively ambitious “Weapons,” both of which played with structure, time, and multi-threaded narratives, filmmaker Zach Cregger is going considerably more straightforward with “Resident Evil.” Fortunately for fans, the film’s linear, tightly locked-in approach doesn’t dull the visceral impact, coiled suspense, or nerve-wracking intensity of Cregger’s filmmaking.

READ MORE: 88 Must-See Movies This Fall: ‘Dune: Part Three,’ ‘Digger,’ ‘Avengers: Doomsday,’ ‘The Adventures Of Cliff Booth’ & More

Before a Live Reddit Q&A with Cregger in Los Angeles Monday night, Sony Pictures screened the first 30 minutes of “Resident Evil” for press, and the footage overdelivered on dread, jolting out-of-nowhere scares, and a queasy sense that something awful is waiting just beyond the corner of every frame.

Continue reading ‘Resident Evil’: Zach Cregger’s First 30 Minutes Are Nerve-Wrackingly Intense, Filmmaker Says He’s Going For “Chaotic, Primal & Grounded” at The Playlist.

After years of false starts and abandoned projects, Paramount is once again trying to get “Star Trek” back into theaters. However, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein aren’t particularly interested in settling old continuity questions or extending the franchise’s existing timelines. The “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” filmmakers are approaching their new “Star Trek” movie as an institutional thriller about what happens when something goes wrong inside Starfleet.

Continue reading John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein Say Their ‘Star Trek’ Movie Is ‘Training Day’ & ‘Crimson Tide’ In Space at The Playlist.

The festival circuit is heating up, with the Venice Film Festival already hitting the press day event as the artistic director, Alberto Barbera, spoke today about the state of the event and revealed that they nearly added Vincent Gallo‘s latest film, “Golden State Killer,” to the lineup, in which he co-stars with James Franco. Speaking to a group of press on the Lido ahead of the 83rd edition of the famed Italian film festival, Barbera revealed that “Golden State Killer” (as you’d imagine is about the infamous California serial killer), which would see Gallo playing Joseph James DeAngelo, almost nabbed a spot and certainly would have ruffled some feathers in the process.

Continue reading Vincent Gallo’s ‘Golden State Killer,’ Starring Himself & James Franco, “Nearly Made” Venice Film Festival Lineup at The Playlist.

After starring opposite Sadie Sink on the West End, the “Hamnet” actor is following his recent co-star into the MCU. Noah Jupe has joined “Avengers: Secret Wars” in an undisclosed role expected to be important to the story.

Deadline reports that Marvel Studios has tapped Jupe for the film ahead of production, which begins later this year. The studio declined to comment, and no character details have been revealed.

Continue reading Noah Jupe Joins ‘Avengers: Secret Wars’ In A Key Mystery Role at The Playlist.

Near the end of his life, Matthew Perry was explicit about how he hoped to be remembered: not first for “Friends,” but for helping people battling addiction. Perry had spent years openly discussing his own struggles with substance abuse and using his celebrity to advocate for recovery.

READ MORE: 62 TV Shows To Watch This Fall: ‘VisionQuest,’ ‘Blade Runner 2099,’ ‘East Of Eden,’ ‘Pride And Prejudice,’ & More

Netflix’s newly announced documentary series “The One About Matthew Perry” appears designed around that wish.

Continue reading ‘The One About Matthew Perry’: Netflix Sets Three-Part Docuseries With Family Archive & Sister’s Testimony at The Playlist.

With “Stranger Things” behind her and her Marvel future now officially underway, Sadie Sink has added another rite of passage for a rising Hollywood star: a Calvin Klein campaign.

The 24-year-old “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” star fronts the second chapter of Calvin Klein’s Fall 2026 “Feel the Fit” denim campaign, following Tate McRae’s installment. Directed and photographed by Aidan Zamiri, the new ad finds Sink slipping into a series of Calvin Klein looks before cutting loose and dancing around to Willa Ford’s wonderfully early-aughts 2001 single “I Wanna Be Bad.”

READ MORE: 88 Must-See Movies This Fall: ‘Dune: Part Three,’ ‘Digger,’ ‘Avengers: Doomsday,’ ‘The Adventures Of Cliff Booth’ & More

The campaign is built around the confidence boost that comes from finding the right pair of jeans, with Sink modeling several of the brand’s Fall 2026 denim styles.

Continue reading Sadie Sink Stars In Calvin Klein’s New ‘Feel The Fit’ Denim Campaign [Watch] at The Playlist.

Fans were very curious to see what characters would ultimately carry over to the newly formed DCU as it looked like the only ones that have officially made the jump are the ones from “The Suicide Squad” (specifically, John Cena‘s Christopher Smith as he go his own solo series with “Peacemaker“) and it was official that actor Xolo Maridueña would be sticking around after “Blue Beetle,” after James Gunn officially added the young superhero to the ever-growing heroic lineup of his “Superman” sequel “Man of Tomorrow.”

Maridueña spoke to Variety recently on the red carpet for “Practical Magic 2” about the experience of being asked to join “Man of Tomorrow” (announced back in July) and essentially being asked to continue the DC superhero after DC Studios had telegraphed that “Blue Beetle” would be spared being tossed on a scrap heap (like the Snyderverse).

Continue reading Xolo Maridueña Was “Humbled” After James Gunn Wanted Him To Reprise Blue Beetle For ‘Superman’ Sequel ‘Man Of Tomorrow’ at The Playlist.