Colman Domingo, Francia Raisa & George Lopez Among NHMC Impact Awards Honorees

Christopher Vourlias On the eve of the 79th Venice Film Festival, where his powerful Ukraine war documentary “Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom” will premiere out of competition on Sept. 7, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky was in a frantic race against time. Footage was still being shot in Ukraine into the second week of August, with Afineevsky only completing the film on Aug. 31 — the same day that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the A-list celebrities and foreign press at the festival’s opening ceremony, urging the world not to forget the war in Ukraine with the impassioned plea: “Don’t turn your back to us.”

box office, there is a near-term question mark about what will happen next: Will recovery stall due to a paucity of Hollywood tentpole movies? Or will international theatrical decouple and find new drivers to maintain the momentum? The good news is that most of the international market’s top territories are now fully open and operating without significant restrictions on seating capacity. These include the U.K. and Ireland, Japan, France, Germany, Spain, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Brazil. The smaller number of territories still laboring under restrictions nevertheless include some valuable ones: China, Turkey, Argentina, Hong Kong and Russia.

Francis Ford Coppola continues to fill out the ensemble for his epic Megalopolis, with Talia Shire (The Godfather), Shia LaBeouf (Honey Boy), Jason Schwartzman (The French Dispatch), Grace Vanderwaal (Stargirl), Kathryn Hunter (The Tragedy of Macbeth) and James Remar (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) being its newest additions.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The Zurich Film Festival has selected some of the year’s most anticipated auteur films and high-brow Hollywood movies in its Gala Premieres section. Among other films, the fest screens the European premieres of “The Woman King,” with Viola Davis, and “Bros” by Nicholas Stoller. It also plays “The Son” by Florian Zeller. “Of the 145 films in this year’s festival program, we are able to show more than a quarter of them as world or European premieres – more than ever before in the festival’s history,” Christian Jungen, artistic director, says. “We are particularly proud to be holding the European premieres of Gina Prince-Bythewood’s historical epic ‘The Woman King,’ in which Academy Award-winner Viola Davis leads an international Black cast, as well as the gay romantic comedy ‘Bros’ by Nicholas Stoller, who cast all LGBTQ+ actors for the film. These two movies are a testament to the diverse talent working in Hollywood cinema, and we are very excited to be bringing them to a European audience.”

The touring cast of the Broadway musical Moulin Rouge made their national television debut last night!

Jennifer Lopez is celebrating her love with Ben Affleck. over the weekend with a three-day wedding bash.   The pair first tied the knot in a surprise Las Vegas wedding last month, but now they're hosting an event for friends and family.  Prior to walking down the aisle to marry Affleck, the "Marry Me" actress, 53, had several high-profile romances. She's been married four times and dated several of the biggest names in Hollywood.

Pete Waterman has paid tribute to his 'brilliant' friend Darius Danesh following his death at the age of 41. It was confirmed on Tuesday that Darius had passed away on August 11 after being found unresponsive in his US apartment room. Appearing on Talk TV on Tuesday evening, Pete spoke to Jeremy Kyle about the last time he saw Darius - who competed on Pop Idol in 2002.

There are a lot of hard-working people in Hollywood both in front of and behind the camera. It’s hard to find one as busy as Michelle Visage, however.

Bert Fields, the relently loyal powerhouse entertainment lawyer who repped clients including Harvey and Bob Weinstein, Tom Cruise, George Lucas, the Beatles, Michael Jackson and many others in myriad headline-making cases in Hollywood, has died, TMZ reports. He was 93.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Minions: The Rise of Gru” has been given a mainland China theatrical release date of Aug. 19, 2022.

China has set an August 19 release date for Universal/Illumination’s Minions: The Rise Of Gru. This will be the first major tentpole from Hollywood to hit the market since Universal’s own Jurassic World Dominion which has grossed $157.4M there through Sunday and during an extended nine-week run; it is the biggest studio import of 2022.

Clayton Davis It wasn’t a great week for Latinos in Hollywood, but I’m sure many of you knew that already.Between Warner Bros. axing the release of “Batgirl” starring Leslie Grace, HBO Max canceling the coming-of-age comedy TV series “The Gordita Chronicles” and James Franco being cast as Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in an upcoming feature, Latinos are being mercilessly discarded and overlooked in the entertainment business. Worse yet, not many seem to care.Warner Bros.

After expressing his outrage over James Franco being cast as Fidel Castro in the independent feature drama Alina of Cuba, Primetime Emmy winner John Leguizamo has expounded on his stance regarding Hollywood casting non-Latinos in Latino roles. Specifically, in an Instagram post earlier today, he says “Alright, look, I got no problems with James Franco, yo, OK?” while explaining, “I grew up in a era where Latin people couldn’t play Latin people on film.”

James Franco will be playing former Cuban leader Fidel Castro in an upcoming movie and his casting has drawn criticism from the Latinx community, including from actor John Leguizamo.

John Leguizamo is tired of the way his community is treated in Hollywood — and he’s speaking out about this ridiculous casting!

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorFive years almost to the day after it began, Hollywood’s evangelistic fervor for streaming has been extinguished this week by the “Batgirl” imbroglio. Warner Bros. Discovery’s decision to scrap the completed DC Comics film that was bound for HBO Max marks the boldest example of Old Media economic rigor being applied to contemporary content spending. David Zaslav, CEO of the newly reconfigured media conglomerate, didn’t even mask his bewilderment at the decision-making process and optimistic profit projections made by the previous WarnerMedia regime.