LOS ANGELES, Nov 15, 2023 (AFP) – Late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel is returning — again — to host the Oscars for a fourth time, organizers said Wednesday. Kimmel will preside over Hollywood’s biggest awards show for the second consecutive year, after television ratings rebounded at last year’s well-reviewed ceremony. “I always dreamed of hosting the Oscars exactly four times,” joked Kimmel, in a statement issued by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and […]
Tag: Film
Hollywood celebrates strike end as actors get back to work
By Andrew MARSZAL LOS ANGELES, Nov 9, 2023 (AFP) – Hollywood celebrated Thursday after actors agreed to end a crippling months-long strike, kicking off a race to get the cameras rolling and salvage next year’s movies and television shows. The Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) called off its 118-day strike after reaching a tentative agreement with studios for a new contract including higher pay and protections against the use of artificial intelligence. While the deal needs […]
Richard Roundtree, America’s ‘first Black action hero,’ dead at 81
WASHINGTON, Oct 25, 2023 (AFP) – American actor Richard Roundtree, heralded as “the first Black action hero” for his starring role in the iconic 1971 hit “Shaft,” died Tuesday at 81, US media reported. Hollywood publication Deadline said that the actor, known for opening doors for other Black artists in the industry, died with his family at his bedside, “after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer.” “Shaft,” in which Roundtree played the eponymous private eye […]
Taylor Swift’s concert film breaks records, rakes in $96 million in opening weekend
LOS ANGELES, Oct 15, 2023 (AFP) – After her sold-out stadium tour, pop superstar Taylor Swift filled movie theaters with screaming fans as her concert film took in an estimated $96 million in its opening weekend in North America, smashing records in the category. “This is a sensational domestic opening,” said analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. While ticket sales for “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” — which features scenes from three concerts […]
Talks to end Hollywood actors’ strike collapse
By Andrew MARSZAL LOS ANGELES, Oct 12, 2023 (AFP) – Talks between Hollywood actors and studios over an ongoing strike have collapsed, in a blow to hopes for a swift end to a crisis that has crippled the entertainment industry. Heads of studios such as Disney and Netflix had been meeting regularly since last week with negotiators for the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA), whose members walked off film and TV sets in July. In a […]
‘Harry Potter’ actor Michael Gambon dies aged 82
LONDON, Sept 28, 2023 (AFP) – Celebrated British-Irish actor Michael Gambon, best known for playing Albus Dumbledore in six of the eight “Harry Potter” films, has died in hospital aged 82, his family announced Thursday, prompting a flood of tributes. Gambon won four television BAFTAs and Olivier awards during an acclaimed decades-spanning acting career across television, film, radio and theatre. It was capped by his beloved role as the headmaster of the wizarding school Hogwarts […]
Hollywood writers’ guild leaders call off monthslong strike
LOS ANGELES, Sept 27, 2023 (AFP) – The leaders of the Writers Guild of America on Tuesday called off a monthslong strike that has paralyzed Hollywood, accepting a pay deal hammered out with production studios. The powerful writers’ union’s board of directors “voted unanimously to recommend the agreement,” it said in a statement, adding “the strike ends at 12:01 am” Los Angeles time on Wednesday. The union’s 11,500 members will have final say on whether […]
‘Barbie’ stays atop ‘hill of cash’ in N.America theaters
LOS ANGELES, July 30, 2023 (AFP) – Warner Bros.’ blockbuster “Barbie” earned an estimated $93 million in North American theaters this weekend as it continued “rolling down a hill of cash,” industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported Sunday. Taken together with Universal’s dark biopic “Oppenheimer,” which took in a mighty $46.2 million in its own second weekend out, the two films provided a much-needed “Barbenheimer” boost during a middling Hollywood summer. “July would have been a […]
Hollywood shuts down as actors go on strike
By Andrew MARSZAL Agence France-Presse LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — Tens of thousands of Hollywood actors will go on strike at midnight Thursday, effectively bringing the giant movie and television business to a halt as they join writers in the first industry-wide walkout for 63 years. The Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) issued a strike order after last-ditch talks with studios on their demands over dwindling pay and the threat posed by artificial intelligence ended […]
Golden Globes journalist group to be dissolved as awards taken private
By Andrew MARSZAL Agence France-Presse LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — The scandal-hit association of foreign journalists that created the Golden Globes will be wound down as the Hollywood award show is formally purchased by private investors including US billionaire Todd Boehly, it was announced Monday. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association — a group of around 100 entertainment writers with links to overseas publications — has handed out the Globes to A-list film and television […]
Hollywood royalty flood Cannes for DiCaprio-Scorsese premiere
CANNES, France, May 20, 2023 (AFP) – The Hollywood cavalcade descended on Cannes Saturday for the premiere of Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese’s Native American crime epic, “Killers of the Flower Moon.” The three-and-a-half-hour movie, which includes Scorsese’s other long-time muse Robert De Niro, charts a wave of murders among the wealthy Osage Indians in the 1920s and the birth of the FBI. After hours of waiting in the rain that has drenched the French […]
New Indiana Jones director gives ‘best version’ of Spielberg
CANNES, France (AFP) — It is no easy feat taking over an iconic saga like Indiana Jones, but new director James Mangold says he wanted to deliver the “best version” of what his childhood hero Steven Spielberg had done with the four previous films. Mangold took the reins from Spielberg to deliver the fifth film in the franchise with “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Thursday, […]





