Category: Feature Story
-
ODYSSEY Casting Call & Top 10 Kismet Co-Stars
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent Last night on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” Zendaya just recounted how Tom Holland got the call for The Odyssey casting. Naturally it came from director Christopher Nolan himself. “I’m also a Chris Nolan fan,” she said, and “didn’t even put myself in that equation at all, I…
-
Why SINNERS is the only unicorn Oscar nom this year?
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent What if SINNERS, a vampire movie boasting a record 16 Best Picture nominations, actual bites down hard this 98th Oscar ceremony and sweeps on Sunday, March 15th, on ABC – not because of the critical acclaim only, but because it has one quality all the other noms do not?…
-
DISCLOSURE DAY, June 12: Your Alien 101 Primer?
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor have been cast with the task to shoulder Steven Spielberg’s return to his alien obsession in DISCLOSURE DAY, from Universal Pictures, set for Summer Blockbuster season on June 12, 2026. Most people probably have a few Star Trek and Star Wars ideas about the…
-
Gotta Call BS on Quentin Tarantino’s Top 10 List, Sorry
by Chad Aiggia, Screenmancer Movie Critic When we first saw Director Quentin Tarantino’s Top 10 Favorite Movie List, some of us considered it to be totally bogus, a completely fake. In what award-winning filmmaker’s brain would Toy Story 3, although a great movie, rank as #2? Much less for the auteur who broke our eyeballs…
-
David Ellison’s Skydance bid in DC for Jezebel-like Warner Bros?
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent Tonight, Paramount-Skydance’s David Ellison is reported by The Guardian’s White House Correspondent Hugo Lowell to be in attendance for the MBS White House Dinner at President Trump’s invitation. Trump of course is close to the elder Ellison, Larry Ellison of Oracle, backed up by his hundreds of billions. At…
-
Director Rachel Feldman on LILLY, Patricia Clarkson, Netflix debut
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent Imagine you’re a rookie film director, you land Academy Award nominee Patricia Clarkson with her unmistakable New Orleans guile plus a very fine cast including actors John Benjamin Hickey and Thomas Sadoski for a movie about one of America’s unsung, true-life, gutsy working women? Director Rachel Feldman did just…
-
Top 10 Russell Crowe Films Ranked & His Band
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent Most of us in Hollywood remember when Sharon Stone plucked an Australian bad boy out of obscurity from a ballsy indie movie called ROMPER STOMPER, where clench-fisted lead Hando has a goggle-eyed stare that scared the crap out of first-look audiences. Hando was 28-year-old Russell Crowe who even showed…
-
Top 10 Freaky Plastic Surgery Films for Jamie Lee Curtis
by Chad Aiggia, Freelance Correspondent Because we love Jamie Lee Curtis at all her ages au naturel, including now as older JLC, who just spoke out in “The Guardian”(UK) news pages against the odd-faced Hollywood obsession with plastic surgery? Screenmancer presents a very unusual entry in our Top 10’s this Summer dedicated to her. That…
-
Director Robert Clem on insider Gospel music for doc HOW THEY GOT OVER
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent After watching documentary HOW THEY GOT OVER, directed by Robert Clem, more than the music of the Soul Stirrers, Dixie Hummingbirds, Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, Sensational Nightingales, the Davis Sisters, and other featured artists stays with you. There’s Sister Rosetta Tharpe in all her glory, guitar on the…
-
POV: Natasha Maidoff, Filmmaker & Creative Coaching Tips
By Natasha Maidoff, Filmmaker & Creative Coach Creativity is natural, I believe, to all of us. But most of us don’t give ourselves the time to let ourselves work on the projects that nag at us. Or return to a project that we haven’t touched for the past decade. My solution is to pick up…
-
Lucille Ball was more than just I Love Lucy, BEING THE RICARDOS, she made careers
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent This Oscar season so much attention is focused on those who have departed, from Princess Diana to Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Their fans think they knew them best, and yet? With a hot Best Actress front-runner race between Kristen Stewart (Princess of Wales) and Nicole Kidman (Lucy), among…
-
Spielberg Challenge: 32 Movies, plus 1971’s DUEL, ranked Best to Good, Your Turn?
by Screenmancer West Side Story marks Director Steven Spielberg’s latest Academy Award nomination bonanza at 7 noms, but the real record-holding stat is that he has been nominated in various categories for say (first at Cannes) 47 years? But wait, there’s more, and more specific stats, to amaze. Which is why we are throwing down…
-
Encore: Diane Warren brings smash-hit feel to open Film Fest 919 in Chapel Hill
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent Smoke machines opened last night’s 2021 Spotlight Award for Diane Warren in advance of the 12-time Best Song Oscar nominee’s arrival at the Caraway Village Drive In. Then, against the eerie artificial atmosphere, a sky-wide laser show tore open Warren’s lyrics sung by Celine Dion, Cher, Lady Gaga, Steven…
-
Screenmancer 25th Flashback: Mark Ebner’s WHAT MAKES RONNIE RUN?
by Mark Ebner, At Large “Boffo” business was predicted for My Best Friend’s Wedding, but Sony Pictures’ claim to the biggest romantic comedy opening ever sent the entire industry reeling. The movie’s star writer, Ron Bass, (Sleeping With The Enemy, Rain Man) has since enjoyed much acclaim for his foray into the hit or miss…
-
Artificial script readers hit Hollywood, wait, it’s just Largo
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent When an exclusive invite to try new a AI breakthrough for screenplays popped up from Largo.ai, of course we had to try this new service. Here’s an excerpt of the pitch: “You can watch our workshop in Cannes to get an idea on the usage of AI during a…
Stay Connected
Categories
Acquisitions Awards Award Season Blockbuster Books Casting Classic Hollywood Comedy Coming Soon Contests Documentary Events Feature Story Festivals Filmmaking Hollywood Indies In Memoriam International Interviews Legends Movies Movie Stars Music New Releases News Nominations Op Ed Oscars People Politics Premiere Production Reviews SciTech Screenplays Short Films Streaming Tech Top 10 Trends VOD WGA WGAE Women In Film & TV
Tags
94th Academy Awards Academy Awards Adam Driver AFI AFIMOVIECLUB Amazon Amazon Prime Amazon Studios AMPAS Award Season Brad Pitt Carol Marshall Comedy Documentary Elon Musk Emily Blunt Film Fest 919 Film Festivals Film Independent Filmmaking Hollywood Kristen Stewart Legends Lionsgate Margot Robbie MGM movies NEON Netflix Nicole Kidman Oscars Paramount Pictures Randi Emerman Roadside Attractions SBIFF Screenmancer Searchlight Pictures Short Films Steven Spielberg TCM The Academy Tom Cruise Universal WGA Will Smith
Latest News
About the Author
AF themes
Easy WordPress Websites Builder: Versatile Demos for Blogs, News, eCommerce and More – One-Click Import, No Coding! 1000+ Ready-made Templates for Stunning Newspaper, Magazine, Blog, and Publishing Websites.
Search the Archives
Access over the years of investigative journalism and breaking reports
You May Have Missed
