While no agreement has been formalized between Hollywood’s writers and the AMPTP – the industry trade group that represents over 350 American television and film production companies – significant progress has been made for the first time in months. To celebrate the newfound optimism, check out what’s new in theaters and the best places to check them out.
In theaters
“Dumb Money” – Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Sebastian Stan and Pete Davidson star in a biographical comedy-drama based on one of 2021’s weirdest true stories: How the American video game retailer GameStop short-squeezed its stock into 30 times its value, causing panic across all of Wall Street. For those wanting to know more about what happened, Netflix produced a documentary on the incident called “Eat the Rich: The GameStop Saga.”
Perfect theater: The Big Picture in Issaquah. The 21-and-older crowd gets to enjoy this oddball flick with some of the best food and drinks available in cinemas.
“A Haunting in Venice” – Kenneth Branagh’s third adventure as Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot sends him to the causeways of Venice where he witnesses an All Hallows Eve séance go wrong. For those too impatient to wait for summer to end before seeking supernatural thrills, “A Haunting in Venice” provides the first festive mystery for this autumn season.
Perfect theater: Majestic Bay Theater in Ballard provides just enough blend of modern capabilities and old-school cinema aesthetics.
Review: ‘A Haunting in Venice’ is Branagh at his most macabre … with middling success
“Expend4bles“ – Sylvester Stallone bids farewell to his Barney Ross character with the fourth and potentially final installment of this action thriller series alongside newcomers Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Megan Fox and Andy Garcia. This new adventure was directed by Scott Waugh from a script by Kurt Wimmer, Tad Daggerhart, and Max Adams.
Perfect theater: AMC Pacific Place 11 in downtown Seattle. That’s because you can go up to the second floor, enjoy a nice happy hour, then watch Stallone and friends punch things for 103 minutes.
“It Lives Inside“ – Two Indian-American high school students trying to fit in begin investigating their heritage after inadvertently releasing a dangerous supernatural threat. “It Lives Inside” is a coming-of-age horror film directed by Bishal Dutta in his feature-length directorial debut.
Perfect theater: The Ark Lodge in Seattle. This petite theater is perfect for Friday night scares.
Netflix
“El Conde“ — Director Pablo Larraín (“Jackie“, “Spencer“) is back with a new Chilean black comedy horror film about dictator Augusto Pinochet, who’s portrayed as an aged vampire who, after living for 250 years, has decided he’s ready to die once and for all. Larraín recently broke down “El Conde” and finally facing Pinochet.
“Love at First Sight” – Adapted from Jennifer E. Smith’s novel “The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight,” Katie Lovejoy’s (“To All the Boys: Always and Forever“) script pits Haley Lu Richardson and Ben Hardy as the besotted pair that fights to find each other again after an initial fateful encounter in an airport.
“Spy Kids: Armageddon“ – Robert Rodriguez is bringing back his franchise that’s a nostalgic favorite among millennial-Gen-Z-cuspers: “Spy Kids.” Zachary Levi and Gina Rodriguez lead the rebooted cast, with Rodriguez contributing as an actor, director, writer and producer.
Amazon Prime
“Cassandro“ – The story of Mexican-American luchador, Saúl “Cassandro” Armendáriz, comes to life with Gael García Bernal’s performance, which is garnering early Oscar buzz. The film follows a gay amateur wrestler from El Paso, Texas, who suddenly becomes an international star known as the “Liberace of Lucha Libre.” The film is directed by Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams.
“A Million Miles Away” — The real-life story of NASA flight engineer José Hernández, played by Michael Peña, has come to life. The movie details how Hernandez worked his way to becoming the first Mexican-American astronaut. It currently holds an 89% critic rating and a 96% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while The New York Times described the film as “beautifully shot interspersed with historical footage of migrant workers and spacecraft launches.”
Hulu
“No One Will Save You“ – For those wanting some early scares from the comfort of their own couch, “No One” combines the handcrafted inventiveness of “Home Alone“ paired with the claustrophobic anxiety seen in Ridley Scott’s classic “Alien.” Written and directed by Brian Duffield, who also recently created a “Skull Island“ show for Netflix, the film stars Kaitlyn Dever (“Booksmart“) as she fends for herself in the middle of a ruthless home invasion by a race of aliens. Dever, 26, previously made Forbes’ 30 Under 30 – Hollywood & Entertainment list. Dever “kills it” in the “thrilling sci-fi-horror,” critic Samantha Coley wrote for Collider.
Paramount Plus
“Superpower” — Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufman started working on a documentary on Volodymyr Zelenskyy — the sixth president of Ukraine — since he was sworn in April 21, 2019. Despite graduating with a law degree from Kyiv National Economic University, Zelenskyy spent seven years as an actor, performer, script writer and producer of a stand-up comedy contest team before founding Kvartal 95 Studio. But the tone of the documentary changed in February 2022 when Russia invaded Zelenskyy’s country. Penn and Kaufman explore the country before and after the war, and how the conflict has affected its residents.
Hollywood news
The writer and actor strikes that have paralyzed the entertainment industry for months will continue on, for now. But the Writers Guild of America and the AMPTP will meet again for bargaining Saturday, the WGA said in a statement late Friday, NBC News reports. Disney’s Bob Iger, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav and Comcast’s NBCUniversal Studio Group Chairman Donna Langley all have been present at the bargaining table. While no deal has been made, there has been some progress as NBC reported the two parties are “inching closer” to an agreement.
Disney has delayed many of its key upcoming releases in response to the strikes, including “Blade,” “Fantastic Four,” “Captain America: Brave New World,” “Thunderbolts,” “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” and “Avengers: Secret Wars.” James Cameron’s Avatar sequels have been delayed, while, on the TV side of things, Netflix has indefinitely postponed “Emily in Paris” and “Stranger Things.” A full list of delayed projects can be seen here.
Rumors of Quentin Tarantino’s 10th and “supposedly” final film, “The Movie Critic,” have continuously swirled as anticipation brews. The latest? Tarantino is teaming up with John Travolta for his swan song.
“I hear Tarantino is saving a role in his final film ‘The Movie Critic’ for two of his former leading men. Here’s one of them,” The Ankler’s Jeff Sneider wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, followed by a GIF of the iconic scene where John Travolta’s Vincent Vega looks around an apartment in “Pulp Fiction.”
Nothing has been confirmed, as earlier rumors linked Paul Walter Houser as having a role in Tarantino’s concluding film. What is known about “The Movie Critic” is its time period and location: 1977 Los Angeles. Previous speculation indicated that the movie may be about American film critic Pauline Kael – which was quickly debunked by Tarantino.
Russia will reportedly boycott the 2023 Oscars as the country decided to not submit one of 122 potentially eligible domestic films for the Academy’s Best International Feature Film category. Pavel Chukhrai, the chairman of Russia’s nominations commission (and director of the Oscar-nominated 1997 film “The Thief“) resigned over the decision, according to Reuters. Russia was most recently nominated in the international feature category for “Leviathan” (2014) and “Loveless” (2017).
Russia won Best International Feature in 1994 for Nikita Mikhalkov’s “Burnt by the Sun“. Preceding victories for Soviet Union-submitted titles include Vladimir Menshov-directed “Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears” (1980) and Sergei Bondarchuk’s multi-part drama “War and Peace” (1965).