The Iron Sheik, WWE Wrestling Legend, Dead at 81

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Musical tag-teaming doesn’t have results much more fruitful than what came about when the showrunners of “A Small Light” picked Ariel Marx to compose the score for the limited series and Este Haim to serve as executive music producer. Neither Haim nor Marx was in a position to take anything about the job lightly, given that the eight-episode series for National Geographic and Disney+ tells the story of a Dutch woman, Miep Gies, who helped hide Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis. Yet, in their very separate roles, both found ways to bring musical light or even levity into a drama that inevitably skews toward tension. Este Haim took on the EMP job for the first time with “A Small Light” after previously scoring or co-composing “Maid” and “Cha Cha Smooth” — on top of her day job as one-third of the rocking sister trio Haim. For “A Small Light,” she produced episode-ending covers of songs from the first half of the 20th century, performed by Angel Olsen, Moses Sumney, Kamasi Washington, Sharon Van Etten with Michael Imperioli, Remi Wolf, Weyes Blood, duet partners Orville Peck and King Princess, and her sister Danielle.

The Walking Dead spinoff Daryl Dixon has been released.In the first-look teaser, released off the back of the debut of the Maggie and Negan-focused show Dead City, it appears that Daryl (played by Norman Reedus) is struggling out in France.The spin-off is one of the series continuing The Walking Dead universe now that the main show and The Walking Dead: World Beyond have come to an end and Fear The Walking Dead is in its final season.In the clip, a silhouette of an upturned wooden boat comes into focus and shows a passed-out Daryl out at sea. Additionally, a first poster released for the series shows the Eiffel Tower in its post-apocalyptic state, confirming that the bulk of the story will take place in Paris.Daryl is about to be a fish out of water… Did you catch the #DarylDixon tease during #DeadCity? pic.twitter.com/0Am5RFL76v— The Walking Dead (@WalkingDead_AMC) June 19, 2023Last year, The Walking Dead writer and producer Scott M.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Mother of all Lies, a docu-drama film that probes the secrets of Morocco’s 1981 Bread Riots, was Sunday named the best picture at the Sydney Film Festival. The jury, headed by Anurag Kashyap, called the Asmae El Moudir-directed film “audacious, cutting-edge and courageous.” It presented the A$60,000 ($41,100) cash prize film ahead at the State Theatre ahead of the Australian premiere screening of “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” The film, which uses doll-like figurines, recently premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, where it earned the section’s best director prize. “Juxtaposing evidence from barely existent public materials with private family memory, this film reconstructs the history of the state, the family and the individual, in three distinct levels,” said the jury of Kashyap, actor Mia Wasikowska (Australia), film curator and journalist Dorothee Wenner (Germany), writer and director Larissa Behrendt (Australia) and filmmaker Visakesa Chandrasekaram (Australia – Sri Lanka).

Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan team up for an unlikely duo in the latest spinoff. follows Maggie (Cohan) and Negan (Morgan) traveling into a post-apocalyptic Manhattan, long ago cut off from the mainland as they search for Maggie's missing teenage son, Hershel (Logan Kim).

Jessica Liese “The Walking Dead” ended last year to little fanfare, tempered as the finale was by news of at least three additional series on the horizon (in addition to the three already in existence). At first glance, it’s difficult to comprehend what additional zombie stories could possibly remain to be told. But for those who haven’t yet succumbed to zombie-apocalypse fatigue, the first of this new batch of spinoffs may suggest a spark of life remaining in the franchise. The first season of “The Walking Dead: Dead City” is a well-told, self-contained story that retains many of its predecessor’s best qualities while deepening two of its most beloved characters. The series, which premieres on AMC on June 18, is less of a spin-off of the flagship, and more of a sequel featuring only Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) as they navigate new challenges several years after the events of “The Walking Dead” series’ finale.

Editor’s note: The following interviews were done outside of the FYC event series, as there was no panel or screening.

John Bleasdale Guest Contributor “Ozi, Voice of the Forest” premiered at the Annecy Festival on June 13, kicking off a series of films that seek to highlight dangers to the environment.  The film tells the story of a young orangutan Ozi, voiced by Amandla Stenberg (“The Hunger Games”), who becomes separated from her parents when her rain forest home is devastated by a company producing palm oil.  With the additional voice talents of Laura Dern, Djimon Hounsou and Donald Sutherland, the film also boasts a broad array of talent behind the camera including Keith Chapman, creator of “PAW Patrol” and Madrid-based Rodrigo Blaas, behind the “Sith” episode in “Star Wars Visions,” as part of the creative team. Leonardo DiCaprio and legendary producer and former studio head Mike Medavoy are credited as producers.

Once among TV’s most popular series, AMC’s The Walking Dead followed Rick Grimes, a sheriff’s deputy who wakes from a coma to find the world overrun by zombies, colloquially referred to as “walkers.” As he searches for his missing wife and son, Rick encountered a variety of survivors and learns the profound depths of human cruelty and resilience. Over time, the show’s focus shifted from simple survival amid the walker outbreak to conflicts between surviving communities, each striving to establish their own vision of a new civilization. The central theme emphasized the struggles and ethical dilemmas that arise in this gruesome and uncertain world.

and dark American Westerns such ashas died at 89, his publisher, Knopf, said. Knopf said in a statement that McCarthy's son confirmed that he died on Tuesday of natural causes at his home in Sante Fe, New Mexico. McCarthy gained prominence for his unflinching explorations of some of the darkest corners of the American landscape. He won the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award for his 1992 novel McCarthy's 2006 novel about a father and son's journey of survival through an America decimated by an unspecified event, made readers confront extreme evil and resilient hope, and earned him the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, McCarthy was raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, and briefly attended the University of Tennessee, where he received the Ingram-Merrill Award for creative writing. McCarthy's decades-long career took off in 1965 with his first novel, a story of murder and isolation set in a small Appalachian community.

The positive response to the Dutch reality series De Verraders has brought different versions of The Traitors to many countries, but executive producer Toni Ireland says the biggest challenge for her was to ensure that the U.S. production stood out in the crowd. Peacock’s The Traitors brings together a group of everyday people and reality TV stars in an elaborate murder-mystery competition hosted by Alan Cumming. Perhaps the biggest change in the U.S. series was in how the game ended, which led to a shocking finale where the group needed to unanimously decide to either trust their fellow finalists and split the money or call for another elimination vote if they believe a traitor is still among them.

Behind the tragic story of Anne Frank and her family, there is an oft-unsung hero who risked her life to protect them in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam.

Please note, the following interview was done outside of the FYC event series as there was no cast panel or screening. 

Manchester City have qualified for the UEFA Super Cup after beating Inter Milan 1-0 in the final of the Champions League on Saturday night.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter The CW is set to become the first U.S. broadcaster to air the hit Biblical epic series “The Chosen.” The three existing seasons of the series will begin airing on the network on July 16 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. It will continue airing in that timeslot throughout the rest of the year, with the Season 3 finale scheduled to air on Christmas Eve. A fourth season of the series is currently in production, with seven seasons planned. News of the series finding a U.S. broadcast home comes less than three weeks after it was announced that Lionsgate had acquired the sub-licensing distribution rights worldwide for the series. It hails from creator, director, and producer Dallas Jenkins. The show tells the story of Jesus, played by Jonathan Roumie, through the eyes of his followers.

Editor’s note: These interview was done outside of the FYC event as there was no cast or creatives panel as a part of the event.

WWE fans are mourning a legend.

Pro-wrestling legend and Hall of Famer The Iron Sheik has sadly passed away at the age of 81.

The man born Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri but known to millions of pre wrestling fans as The Iron Sheik has died. He was 81.

pic.twitter.com/Cr6CC9pXSOSheik’s never-ending rivalry with Hulk Hogan during that era helped launch the bleach-blonde bodybuilder to international fame.