Sufjan Stevens ‘Illinois’ Stage Musical Sets World Premiere; ‘West Side Story’ Choreographer Justin Peck To Direct

CNN News Central, the network’s new daytime programming blocks, will begin its roll out next week.

Back to the Future: The Musical will launch a North American tour in the summer of 2024, producers announced today.

In 1982, the same year Sir Ben Kingsley won his Best Actor Oscar for Gandhi, the year’s other big movie was Steven Spielberg’s E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial. Now, 40 years later, Kingsley has found his own E.T., a sort of combination of that classic with a bit of Cocoon, and perhaps The Father. But Jules, the new dramedy having its World Premiere as opening night of the Sonoma Film Festival, marches to its own sweet beat, and represents yet another game attempt to bring that older adult audience back to theaters. A smart distributor should take a close look.

Stacey Solomon has left fans with tears in their eyes after sharing an emotional video for her son Zachary's birthday.

A.D. Amorosi In 1972, director-writer Perry Henzell released his Jamaican crime flick “The Harder They Come” with singer-songwriter Jimmy Cliff — then, a burgeoning reggae star — as its anti-hero lead actor. For his menacing cinematic debut, Cliff provided the lion’s share of the film’s riveting soundtrack, with lilting songs such as “You Can Get It If You Really Want” and the movie’s title tune. Both the soundtrack and film (the latter released in the United States in 1973) became sensations. “The Harder They Come” brought island culture to the world beyond the Caribbean, and helped popularize reggae in the Americas. Along with his anthemic title song becoming an instant classic, Cliff’s “Many Rivers to Cross” was subsequently covered by Linda Ronstadt, John Lennon and Annie Lennox, among other artists. Along with being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010, the Library of Congress deemed Cliff’s “The Harder They Come” worthy of preservation in the National Recording Registry as of 2021.

Stephen Sondheim’s final, long-awaited musical Here We Are will make its world premiere this September in a strictly limited Off Broadway engagement to be directed by two-time Tony winner Joe Mantello.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent New York-based investment firm MEP Capital, which previously acquired the library of Lotus Entertainment, is launching West Side Pictures, a new independent rights management banner. Along with Lotus Entertainment, MEP also recently acquired the distribution rights to over 500 films and TV shows from Kew Media, including “Line of Duty,” “Thank You For Smoking” and “Jack Taylor and Rules of Engagement.” Now boasting a library comprising more than 800 movies, TV series and documentaries, MEP Capital has signed deals with Magnolia and Abacus Media Rights to handle the distribution of these titles in the U.S. and internationally, across streamers and TV channels.

Ke Huy Quan was on a mission. He’d just been named best supporting actor for his performance as Waymond Wang, the goofy husband of a laundromat owner in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” and he wanted to experience the moment with Steven Spielberg. Spielberg, you see, was the filmmaker who cast him in his breakout role in 1984’s “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” when Quan was 12 years old. So during a commercial break in the Academy Awards telecast, Quan, 51, went over to where Spielberg was sitting with his wife, actress Kate Capshaw, whom Quan hadn’t seen since they co-starred in “Temple of Doom” four decades earlier. After hugs all around, Spielberg put his hands on Quan’s shoulders and said, “You are now an Oscar-winning actor.”

Duped,” and a photo of Leonardo DiCaprio in full pilot regalia accompanied the piece. It was the famous still from “Catch Me if You Can,” Steven Spielberg’s 2002 film inspired by Abagnale’s best-selling memoir from 1980.Via email, the “reformed” con artist and author — who now advises businesses, banks, department stores and the FBI on fraud prevention and cybercrime — wanted me to know that it bothered him that “everyday someone writes an article about a bank robbery, forgery, con artist, or even cybercrime and they refer to me.“The crime I committed was writing bad checks,” he wrote.

is once again one of the most talked-about films in 2023, in large part thanks to one of its former child stars, Ke Huy Quan, who has made a major Hollywood comeback with . In the 1985 film directed by Richard Donner, written by Chris Columbus and based on a story by Steven Spielberg, Quan plays Richard «Data» Wang, a spy fanatic obsessed with making his own gadgets who is one of several kids living in a coastal Oregon town attempting to save their homes from foreclosure by searching for the long-lost fortune of legendary pirate One-Eyed Willy.During his emotional speech for his historic Best Supporting Actor Oscar win on Sunday for his role in, Quan personally thanked his co-star Jeff Cohen, who later became his lawyer and negotiated his deal for Cohen played Chunk in. Quan was in tears as he thanked Cohen, calling him his «Goonies brother for life.»The longtime friends later happily posed at the after-party alongside Ana de Armas.Back in January when Quan received an Oscar nomination, Cohen — who's a partner at entertainment law firm Cohen Gardner LLP — shared a heartfelt message for him on Twitter.«Could not be more proud of and excited for my Brother, Ke Huy Quan,» he wrote while sharing pictures of the two, including a throwback on of them on the set.

Some in the industry might be irked that the Oscars and SXSW are colliding on the same weekend this year, however, it’s a win-win for both tonight: For a year ago, A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once blasted off here in Austin, TX as the festival’s opening night film. The movie becomes the first world premiere to debut at SXSW and win Oscar’s Best Picture.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Ke Huy Quan, a child star who returned to the spotlight after decades for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” won the Oscar for best supporting actor. Earning the first standing ovation of the night, Quan took the stage and shouted out his 84-year-old mother, who is watching at home. “Mom, I just won an Oscar!” For Quan, the victory marks an especially emotional coda to awards season. He rose to fame before his teenage years, playing Harrison Ford’s sidekick in 1984’s “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and appearing in 1985’s “The Goonies.” But Quan quit acting shorty after because he found there weren’t many substantial film roles for Asian people. He didn’t return to acting until 2021 in “Everything Everywhere” as Waymond Wang, the goofy husband to Michelle Yeoh’s multiverse-straddling laundromat owner.

Sufjan Stevens‘ 2005 concept album ‘Illinois’ is being turned into a musical, with its first run confirmed for this year.The new show will premiere this summer as part of the 20th anniversary celebrations of Bard College’s Fisher Center in New York.A synopsis of the production, which features music and lyrics penned by Stevens and script written by Justin Peck and Jackie Sibblies Drury, reads: “Featuring new arrangements of the entire album for a live band and three voices — ranging in style from DIY folk and indie rock to marching band and ambient electronics — Illinois will lead us on a mighty journey through the American heartland, from campfire storytelling to the edges of the cosmos.“Tony Award-winner Justin Peck transforms the album into a full-length theatrical performance with a cast of virtuosic dancers, singers, and musicians in a narrative crafted with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury.”The show will come to Bard from June 23 to July 2 and you can buy tickets here.A few years back, Sufjan Stevens called for every band to break up after ten years together in his end-of-year roundup for 2021.Writing on Tumblr, Stevens listed his favourite and least favourite albums of 2021 – even though most of the entries aren’t actual albums, and a majority of those that are, weren’t released this year.Topping Stevens’ list of the worst albums of 2021 was Netflix’s hit show Squid Game. “I didn’t actually see it but it looks really stupid,” he wrote before giving it a score of F-.Also on Steven’s list of his least favourite albums was The Matrix 4 (“Ugh.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Pornography, as a visual medium, has long followed the lead of technology. First it was drawn by hand. Then it was photographed. Then it was shown in back rooms on 8mm one-reelers. Then it was shown in movie theaters. Then it moved to video cassettes and DVD. Then it arrived on the Internet. Then, in the age of Pornhub, it exploded on the Internet. That’s when porn-on-the-computer innovation became the all-porn-all-the-time revolution. “Money Shot: The Pornhub Story,” a documentary that drops March 15 on Netflix, is not a movie about the cultural prominence or significance of porn in our time. Someone should really make that documentary. It’s a story that, like so much else about pornography, is totally out there yet hidden in the shadows. “Money Shot,” directed by Suzanne Hillinger and produced by Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions, does touch on key aspects of how porn today is manufactured and consumed — notably how technology has helped to blur, if not obliterate, the distinction between the porn professional and the elevated “amateur.” But the movie explores this mostly in the service of telling the story of how Pornhub, the largest porn site in the world, became a lightning rod of controversy when it was accused of being a place that abetted sex trafficking and the sexual abuse of children.

UPDATE: Sinatra The Musical will receive its world premiere production at the Birmingham Rep theater in Birmingham, England. Joe DiPietro’s musical will be directed by Kathleen Marshall and run from Saturday, September 23 to Saturday, October 28.

Amazon Freevee’s new docu-style comedy series Jury Duty is set to premiere with four episodes on April 7. The 8-episode multi-camera comedy starring James Marsden will drop two new episodes each Friday thereafter until April 21.

A legend in film and television! Best known for his roles in Star Wars and Indiana Jones, Harrison Ford’s career has spanned over six decades and he has become an icon in the film industry.

Prince Harry is truly grateful for his wife.

Cinedigm CEO Chris McGurk says the company plans to buy back up to 10 million shares of its beleaguered stock over the next 12 months as it looks to avoid getting delisted from the Nasdaq.

EXCLUSIVE: Screen Media has taken all North American rights to crime pic Bad Hombres, directed by John Stalberg Jr. ahead of its world premiere at the Mammoth Film Festival.