War Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Jar Jar Binks. Invoke the name to any hardcore Star Wars fan and then step back to see the explosion. No one is neutral.

Carolyn Giardina A half-century ago when George Lucas decided to make “Star Wars,” a core visual effects team was handed a sizable challenge: Figure out a believable way to transport audiences to a galaxy far, far away. Essential to that goal was the development of a new type of motion control camera system: built in a Van Nuys warehouse where the production filmed space-set scenes such as the climatic trench run.

In honor of Star Wars Day, we looked at all of the actors that Hayden Christensen competed with join the Star Wars family.

Steven J. Horowitz Senior Music Writer The war of words wages on between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, and this time it’s personal.

Katcy Stephan Hollywood’s next bidding war is about to erupt. “Eruption,” the much-discussed upcoming volcano disaster novel from the late Michael Crichton and James Patterson, is about to be brought to auction, attracting a large group of suitors keen on landing the sought-after film rights.

“How many of you had ‘Mark Hamill will lead the press briefing’ on your bingo cards?” the Star Wars icon joked as he took the podium at the White House. “Yeah, me either.”

Joey King is featured on the cover of Flaunt Magazine‘s latest issue, timed for the release of the season finale of We Were the Lucky Ones.

Last night, a major shake-up in Wigan's "weird" politics that emerged last year was cemented as Labour held onto their whopping 64-seat majority, while what remained of the Conservative opposition almost disappeared and was replaced by independent councillors standing on local issues.

A mystery Manc could see their life transformed with an unclaimed lottery win in the region.

EXCLUSIVE: The Human Rights Watch Film Festival recently announced it’s closing down, and the future of Hot Docs remains uncertain at best. But there’s some hopeful news for the troubled film festival space: the return of the Margaret Mead Film Festival in New York.

Universal teed off summer last night with 87 North/David Leitch’s Ryan Gosling Emily Blunt action romance, The Fall Guy, which made $3.15M from showtimes that began at 5PM yesterday as well as Wednesday advance screenings. The movie is only suppose to do around $35M for the weekend, maybe $40M. That’s not your typical start to summer, but we’re in this predicament due to the strikes’ delay on feature films.

A man has been jailed after raping a woman in her own home in what officers called a 'horrific ordeal'.

After a dramatic election night, Labour has lost its overall majority in Oldham council for the first time in thirteen years. The group saw seven seats go to independent candidates.

Labour has lost seats at councils across Greater Manchester and no longer holds a majority in Oldham. The party suffered losses, predominantly to independent candidates, in several areas where the war in Gaza was said to be a decisive factor for some voters.

Labour has lost its majority at Oldham council. The party which has been in power since 2011 no longer controls the council - but it could remain in charge as the largest party.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Hulu’s “We Were the Lucky Ones,” based on the book by Georgia Hunter, tells the true story of the Kurcs, a Jewish family who lived in Poland at the onset of World War II. The series follows the Kurcs as the events of the war and the Holocaust separate parents and children, tearing families apart. As casting director Fiona Weir read the script for the first episode, showrunner Erica Lipez stressed that despite the grim setting, it ultimately was a celebratory story — and it was important she get the family dynamics right.

EXCLUSIVE: Goodfellas has boarded upcoming war crime drama Occupation from Ukrainian writer-director Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi (The Tribe). The project, which will be produced by Loveless and Leviathan producer Alexander Rodnyansky alongside Nick Shumaker for Anonymous Content, is being launched to buyers in Cannes this month with Goodfellas repping international sales rights and Anonymous Content and CAA Media Finance co-repping North American rights. 

Girl, Interrupted is one of those classics where it’s hard to imagine getting together such a star-studded cast. But it turns out there actually was maybe too much star power for one movie? The way one of the film’s stars talks about it two decades on, it sounds like Angelina Jolie and Winona Ryder were rival girl gang leaders on set!

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Playtime has boarded “Crossing Lines,” a Danish thriller by Baghdad-born first-time director Jahfar Muataz. Currently filming, “Crossing Lines” revolves around a reformed criminal, Cairo, who enjoys his new life as a gang exit counselor. When his nephew Hamza disappears, Cairo discovers he had secretly joined his former gang.

Chris Hemsworth made it a family affair for the premiere of his new movie Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga at the State Theatre on Thursday (May 2) in Sydney, Australia.

Anya Taylor Joy went all out with a work of art at the Australian premiere of her film Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga at the State Theatre on Thursday (May 2) in Sydney, Australia.

In 2022, Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra won the Eurovision Song Contest and promptly sold their winners’ trophy for $900,000 to raise money to help with the war effort. The distinctive crystal microphone was auctioned on Facebook and funds were used to buy drones for Ukraine’s military.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Paris-based international sales and production company Totem Films has revealed its production slate, with projects by Nastia Korkia, Vytautas Katkus, Ernst de Geer and Anna Roller. Totem brought together the directors and writers of the projects they are developing to take part in a Script Circle in Berlin, led by consultants Françoise von Roy and Franz Rodenkirchen. Totem partners Bérénice Vincent and Laure Parleani said that the production companies they are working with, Garagefilm, TamTam and Kalekone, were “enthusiastic about this collaborative idea, so were the directors and scriptwriters.” They added: “It is very nurturing to have a mix of different personalities, countries and backgrounds.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor In a video that circulated on X Wednesday, Robert De Niro can be seen yelling at a crowd while Jesse Plemons looks on from the sidelines. The video, taken by an unknown outlooker, was reposted by several pro-Israel accounts that subtitled De Niro’s dialogue and began circulating it, claiming that De Niro was shouting at pro-Palestinian protestors and referring to the Israel-Hamas War that started Oct. 7.

Joe Leydon Film Critic The thin line between cheating death and chasing it appears to have been smudged, repeatedly, by maverick video journalist Margaret Moth, the subject of first-time filmmaker Lucy Lawless’ fascinating documentary “Never Look Away.” At least, that’s the impression we’re left with at the end of this compact yet complex portrait of a singularly and aggressively unconventional war correspondent who inspired equal measures of admiration and anxiety among her friends, colleagues and lovers throughout her 20 years of assignments in the world’s trouble spots — Baghdad, Sarajevo, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Zaire, you name it, she was there — for CNN. Something of an enigma even to those closest to her — “I never fully understood what was ticking inside of her” is a comment typical of responses by interviewees questioned by an off-camera Lawless — Moth was fond of proudly proclaiming, “I live life to the fullest.” But it was a life she repeatedly risked by going places, doing things and recording wartime horrors with such little regard for her own safety that a CNN teammate warned her: “There’s only so much Russian Roulette you can play.” It was also a life that she more or less reinvented herself to portray.

Kate Winslet‘s Lee finally has a debut teaser trailer.

Addie Morfoot Contributor Producer Ina Fichman, Oscar nominated for “Fire of Love,” was at the 25th edition of Hot Docs Forum on Tuesday to pitch her latest project “Ba’s Book.” Directed by Canadian filmmaker Ashley Da-Le Duong, the hybrid docu focuses on Duong’s father and his experiences living through both the Vietnam War and the Iranian Revolution. “Let me take you somewhere for a moment,” Duong told the Forum audience and participating distributors including Arte, A24 and Al Jazeera. “It’s 1968 and a young man stands in the middle of a rice paddy field and looks up and sees a helicopter.

Anya Taylor Joy and Chris Hemsworth have arrived Down Under!

Kirsten Dunst and Wagner Moura may lead dystopian war thriller Civil War, but the film’s standout scene is carried by an unsettling appearance from Jesse Plemons.Directed and written by Alex Garland, the film follows a team of photojournalists as they travel across the US to Washington D.C. during a civil war between an authoritarian government and various regional factions.Other cast members include Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Sonoya Mizuno, Nick Offerman, and Jefferson White.Jesse Plemons, who plays a racist ultranationalist militant during an intense confrontation, is the reason why the red sunglasses made their way into his character’s costume.Speaking to GQ, Civil War’s costume designer Meghan Kasperlik, said: “When Alex [Garland] and I spoke, he wanted Jesse’s character to be in a military uniform.

Naman Ramachandran Warner Bros.’ “Challengers,” led by Zendaya, debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office with £1.6 million ($2 million), according to numbers from Comscore. In its third weekend, Studiocanal’s “Back to Black” dropped to second place with £1.4 million for a total of £8.9 million.

K.J. Yossman Just John Films have optioned Jennifer Wright’s biography of Victorian abortionist Madame Restell, Variety can confirm, with the writer behind Netflix’s “Persuasian” film set to adapt the book for screen. Published by Hachette, the New York Times-bestseller “Madame Restell: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York’s Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist” recounts the jaw-dropping life of British-born Madame Restell.

CJ Sansom, author of the best-selling historical Shardlake novels, which have been adapted for TV by Disney+, has died aged 71. He passed away on April 27 after being diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2012. 

Nuremberg,” a historical thriller set in post-war Germany, will launch its sales through WME Independent at the Cannes Film Festival next month. The film stars Russell Crowe, Rami Malek and Michael Shannon. Richard E.

Just about any CEO panel these days will inevitably reach the topic of artificial intelligence, and today’s NewFront sit down with the leaders of five major news organizations was no exception.

Jennie Punter Filmmaker and journalist Subina Shrestha’s “Devi”—about Devi Khadka’s journey from surviving wartime rape to fighting alongside rebel guerrillas in Nepal’s civil war to working for justice in her country’s transitional justice movement—lands at Toronto’s Hot Docs as international awareness of and concern about the safety, rights, and health of women in conflict zones around the world intensifies. Last month in the Hague, in opening remarks at the first International Conference of Prosecutors on Accountability for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (also referred to as CRSV), U.N.

Naman Ramachandran “Doctor Who” star Ncuti Gatwa leads the cast of a revival of Oscar Wilde‘s 1895 play “The Importance of Being Earnest” at London’s National Theatre. The play follows Jack Worthing, who while assuming the role of dutiful guardian in the country, lets loose in town under a false identity. Meanwhile, his friend Algernon Moncrieff takes on a similar facade.