‘The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ to Arrive on Digital

The Hunger Games movies, adapted from Suzanne Collins‘ dystopian novels, have left a lasting legacy that we’re still talking about to this day!

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic A hundred years ago, before email and social media found ways to slap us in the face with unsolicited obscenity on a daily basis, the quiet English town of Littlehampton was scandalized by an outburst of poison pen letters — a nasty case of epistolary terrorism that today might be lumped under the heading of “trolling.” Someone with lovely penmanship and a very salty vocabulary dashed off dozens (if not hundreds) of blisteringly offensive notes to members of the seaside community, igniting a police investigation and a series of trials breathlessly covered by the local press, then largely forgotten for almost a century. A bawdy black comedy that isn’t nearly as “outrageous” as it would have you believe, “Wicked Little Letters” offers a tongue-in-cheek retelling of those events for the Merchant Ivory set.

Throughout the first week of January, ITV viewers at home have been gripped by fresh new drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which followed the real life journey of several sub-postmasters who were wrongfully accused (and in some cases even charged) with stealing from the Post Office, thanks to a Horizon computer error.The show, which spanned across four nights in total, saw a star studded cast including Toby Jones, Will Mellor and Julie Hesmondhalgh bring the story to life, including their ongoing fight for justice and compensation for the hundreds of people that were still affected by the error. In emotional scenes, fans saw the toll of the scandal with their own eyes, with several of the accused having lost their jobs, their homes and in some cases even having taken their own lives after struggling to cope with the mental toll of being wrongfully blamed for the error.

The familiar face of Toby Jones has returned to our screens for the new ITV drama Mr Bates vs Post Office, but what fans might not know is that he also has star-studded parents.Toby, 57, who holds an OBE, is best known for being the voice of Dobby in the Harry Potter films from 2002 to 2010. Other huge roles from the actor include Percy Alleline in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Claudius, the announcer for The Hunger Games.

Harry Potter film franchise was not up to his own standards. Oldman played Harry’s godfather Sirius Black across four of the films, starting with 2004’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and winding up with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in 2007. But now, in an interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, he has said that he is not especially proud of his contribution to the films.

Gary Oldman isn’t a big fan of his portrayal of magician Sirius Black in the Harry Potter franchise.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic In a world…where moviegoing isn’t what it once was…a great trailer gets audiences motivated to check out a film on opening weekend. But the very best previews are so much more than that: They hold up as short-form works of art in their own right. Keep in mind, marketing pros get just two and a half minutes to grab your attention and make their pitch.

The Vicar of Dibley is a beloved Christmas classic, but some of the cast have faced tough times off-screen.The BBC comedy, which first aired from 1994 to 2007, still has a loyal fanbase who love to see reruns on TV. The show centred around Reverend Geraldine Granger (Dawn French), the first female vicar in the quiet village of Dibley, and featured a host of talented actors playing unforgettable characters. In addition to the main cast, stars like Miranda Hart, Mel Giedroyc and Peter Capaldi made appearances.

Ethan Shanfeld Alexander Payne’s bittersweet Christmas dramedy “The Holdovers” is hitting Peacock on Dec. 29.

Christmas is right around the corner, and it’s that time of the year to pull out your copy of Elf.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic In a medium where stop-motion chickens organize elaborate escape plans, computer-generated ducks have to do a lot more than relocate to amuse us. Illumination’s “Migration” — about a fussy duck dad who reluctantly reconsiders his fear of flying — is a cartoon in search of a concept, where the most daring idea is hiring the Oscar-nominated co-director of 2012’s “Ernest & Celestine” and asking him to abandon that movie’s unique watercolor style in favor of a relatively standard digital approach.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Jake Johnson‘s survival comedy “Self Reliance” will play on the big screen for one day before it lands on Hulu. Neon is releasing the film in 225 North American theaters on Jan. 3 in partnership with the cinema chain AMC Theatres.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is coming to digital!

“The Drew Barrymore Show” to promote his AppleTV+ series, “Slow Horses,” Oldman, 65 – who is father to sons Alfie, Gulliver and Charlie and step-son William – said that he was cast in the “Harry Potter” movies shortly after divorcing his ex-wife, Donya Fiorentino, in 2001.“At 42 years old, I woke up divorced and I had custody of these boys and so that, in itself, was hard because there was a shift in the industry where a lot of productions were being [filmed in], it was Hungary, Budapest, Prague, Australia, you know, all of these places,” he told Drew Barrymore, 48. Barrymore interjected to explain that global filming locations shifted because of “tax reasons.” As a result, Oldman said he “turned down a lot of work” in order to be with his children.“Thank God for ‘Harry Potter,’” he said.

David Benedict “We need something a little theatrical.” Boy, does excited Bob Newby (Christopher Buckley) get his wish. He’s trying to solve a staging problem in “The Dark of the Moon,” the school play he and the other kids are secretly putting on in Hawkins, Ind., in 1959. But audiences watching “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” will likely greet the line with a wry smile because immense, intense theatricality is there for all to see.

The Hunger Games movies, adapted from Suzanne Collins‘ dystopian novels, are popular enough in 2023 that a prequel movie called The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes just premiered in theaters!

It’s been eight years since “Kung Fu Panda 3,” but the fourth installment in the series finally returns in 2024 with the simply titled “Kung Fu Panda 4.” To be fair, “Kung Fu Panda” didn’t really go anywhere. The franchise pivoted to a Netflix series during the pandemic and even featured Jack Black again.

A bunch of A-List celebs gathered to honor everyday people who are doing extraordinary things to help the lives of others!

Halle Bailey and Rachel Zegler were crowned real-life Disney princesses, they met for the first time at a ball — the 2021 Met Gala, to be exact. It was the beginning not only of a beautiful friendship, but of a new era for Disney. Bailey became the first Black Ariel in Rob Marshall’s live-action adaptation of “The Little Mermaid,” based on Disney’s beloved 1989 animated film.

Ellise Shafer “Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” breakout Tom Blyth has found his next starring role in a new film adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s seminal novel “A Farewell to Arms.” Directed and written by Michael Winterbottom (“Welcome to Sarajevo,” “Wonderland”), the film stars Blyth as protagonist Frederic Henry, a young volunteer ambulance driver for the Italian Army during World War I who gets wounded and falls in love with his nurse. Produced by Fremantle, Revolution Films and Passenger, “A Farewell to Arms” is set to start shooting in Italy later next year.