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Before Covid, critics say, asking for a screener for a major studio release would only inspire publicist laughter. Now that theaters have reopened, it’s more of a random feeding schedule: One studio source who spoke on condition of anonymity said if a critic explained their situation, they would be accommodated with a screener. However, critics say they resent having to justify or plead for special dispensation, especially after a year of proving that critics can effectively review major movies on screeners and the Delta variant makes it clear that Covid isn’t going away....

This week saw standout performances for “Nobody” (Universal) and “Demon Slayer – Mugen Train” (Funimation) each taking two #1 spots on the four charts we track. Netflix’s $18 million domestic-only deal for Liam Neeson acquisition “The Ice Road” seems to have paid off with a top slot. Totals for Pixar’s “Luca” are unknown, but figure it is strong at Disney+; the studio’s “Cruella” also shows well as a new $29....

“Kung Fu,” which premiered on The CW on April 7, tells the story of Nicky Shen (Olivia Liang), a young Asian-American woman who spends three years in a shaolin monastery only to return to her native San Francisco when her mentor is murdered. Neither Liang nor showrunner Christina Kim had a deep familiarity with the original series prior to embarking on this iteration. “Looking back, and just thinking of the time that this first aired, it was such a groundbreaking show in so many ways,” Kim told IndieWire....

“I want to congratulate you on this,” Gardiner told Kaluuya. “I’ve been following you since the beginning of your career, and I was wondering what it meant for you to be directed by Regina [King], what this means for you at this time with the world in the state that it’s in.” Kaluuya responded by telling Gardiner, “Say that question again, please,” although it was unclear if that was because of an audio issue or because he was confused by her question about him working with Regina King....

Despite Colin Farrell taking over the role for Matt Reeves’ “The Batman” opposite Robert Pattinson as the Caped Crusader, DeVito revealed during a Vanity Fair lie detector test video (below) that his version is “better.” DeVito played the Penguin in Tim Burton’s “Batman Returns,” with Michael Keaton as Batman. DeVito was shown a photo of Farrell and asked, “What about this Penguin?” by the lie detector test administrator. “Who, Colin?...

Updated, 3:29 p.m. ET: Netflix has issued a statement regarding the attack on Dave Chappelle onstage at the Netflix Is a Joke festival: “We care deeply about the safety of creators and we strongly defend the right of stand-up comedians to perform on stage without fear of violence.” Chappelle’s rep, meanwhile, has provided a statement to The Hollywood Reporter: “The performances by Chappelle at the Hollywood Bowl were epic and record-breaking and he refuses to allow last night’s incident to overshadow the magic of this historic moment,” the rep said....

“I’ve had those discussions with [the Duffer brothers] from the very first season,” Harbour said. “We were always interested in that idea of the Gandalf resurrection – Gandalf the Grey who fights the Balrog and then becomes Gandalf the White. It’s the idea of the resurrection of the character. And mythologically, Hopper, in a sense, had to change. I mean, you couldn’t go on the way he was going on....

Despite the hit Netflix series breaking streaming records and spurring a whole franchise complete with a spin-off series and stage play adaptation, the Duffer Brothers-helmed ’80s-set teen sci-fi series was an underdog project from the start. “I remember when we were shooting the first season. We were down in Atlanta, Netflix had given us a budget of about $20,” star Harbour explained on BBC’s “The One Show” (via Insider). “Halfway through I remember my hair person coming up to me, like about Episode Four, we were shooting, and she was like, ‘I don’t think it’s gonna work....

The subject of “Dear Comrades!” stretches across the decades: On June 2, 1962, Soviet soldiers opened fire on workers in the city of Novocherkassk who were protesting for better living conditions and lower food prices. The Novocherkassk massacre ended with 26 people dead and buried in secret by KGB officials; it wasn’t until a 1992 investigation that the full scope of the violence came to light. Director Andrei Konchalovsky doesn’t need to follow the story that far....

As THR reports: “When the [‘Dune’ team’s] chopper was back on the ground, Vermette followed his instincts and texted a friend, Paul Inglis, who had worked on Villeneuve’s ‘Blade Runner 2049’ and since had been hired as the supervising art director on J.J. Abrams’ ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,’ then in production. ‘Hey, man, random question. Do you happen to be in Wadi Rum right now?’ Vermette recalls writing....

“She was my first dream choice,” Robinson told IndieWire about Gellar’s casting almost 25 years after the beloved 1999 film debuted. “And it was one of those things where you don’t think she’s going to do it. I was like, ‘Yeah, of course, let’s offer it to her and see what happens.’ You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take. But when she said yes, I was flabbergasted and so excited....

The movie is being written by Myles Murphy, the son of famed comedian Eddie Murphy. The film will be produced by Sony and set in their universe of Spider-Man-affiliated characters, the one that also includes the two “Venom” films,” “Morbius,” and the upcoming “Kraven the Hunter” and “Madame Web” movies. Hypno-Hustler, created by writer Bill Mantlo and artist Frank Springer in a 1978 issue of “Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man,” is a relatively obscure part of the Spider-Man mythos — and a dated product of the ’70s disco craze....

“As a registered independent for years now with centrist ideologies, I do feel that Vice President Biden and Senator Harris, are the best choice to lead our country. And I am endorsing them to become President and Vice President of our United States,” Johnson said in his video announcement supporting the Democratic candidates. “I’ve never publicly endorsed a presidential candidate or a vice presidential candidate in my life, over my career,” Johnson added in a video Q&A with Harris and Biden that followed the announcement....

The film was initially presumed to be lost, last screening for members of the Comintern in 1921. It was presumed that only a 12-minute snippet was all that existed. This print was part of a two-year restoration effort by film historian Nikolai Izvolov, who had previously brought Vertov’s 1918 feature, “Anniversary of the Revolution” to screen at IDFA in 2018. The film is almost 100 percent complete except for a scene that contained Joseph Stalin, which is though to be truly lost....

Roth was not a sci-fi aficionado who adored the Herbert novel, but he saw what Villeneuve could do with it. In a wide-ranging Zoom conversation, Roth and I talked about the agony of being rewritten and his misreading of the power of Netflix when Fincher made his groundbreaking series “House of Cards.” We also discussed his joyous collaboration with another septuagenarian, Martin Scorsese, turning David Grann’s 2017 non-fiction book “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI,” into a $200-million western starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro....

With plenty more on the docket, we here at IndieWire are laying out everything coming to Disney+ this month. But among the many titles (and after plenty of hit-and-miss Disney+ franchise extensions), “Star Wars” still looms large. Originally announced at the D23 fan convention back in 2019, audiences will finally get to see Diego Luna reprise his role of Cassian Andor from “Star Wars: Rogue One” with “Andor.” The series will be divided into two parts....

According to a new report from Rolling Stone, Miller is currently housing a 25-year-old mother and her three young children, aged one to five, at their home in Vermont. The property reportedly doubles as an unlicensed cannabis farm and is littered with firearms. Multiple sources have expressed concern for the children’s safety, citing incidents of frequent cannabis use and insufficient security around the guns. Miller’s representatives did not immediately respond to IndieWire’s request for comment....

“The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” welcomes Anthony Mackie, a.k.a. the Falcon, and Sebastian Stan, i.e. the Winter Soldier, back into the Marvel Cinematic Universe fray. Also starring in the show are Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carter and Daniel Brühl as the villainous Zemo. Wyatt Russell will play John Walker, a character familiar to fans of the comics. The series takes place following the events of “Avengers: Endgame,” as Sam Wilson/Falcon and Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier team up in a global adventure that tests their abilities — and their patience....

Sara Dosa’s “Fire of Love” is a documentarian’s dream. With a truly amazing trove of archival footage taken by married volcanologists Maurice and Katia Krafft, the movie is, seemingly, essentially handed to them. However, that surely didn’t make piecing together this vivid and soaringly heart-tugging documentary a simple task. The filmmakers have restored and re-assembled endless reels and dozens of hours of film and video footage dating back to the late 1960s into a witty portrait, aided amply by appropriately monotone and poetic narration from filmmaker Miranda July, and a soundtrack of go-to, let’s-run-toward-our-future pop classics like Brian Eno’s electronic anthem “The Big Ship....

A student of vintage Euro-horror whose dreamy tales of killer dresses and kinky lepidopterists are sometimes filed away as the stuff of simple giallo fetishism (even by his fans), British filmmaker Peter Strickland may not be shy about his influences, but the echoes that reverberate throughout his work only tend to clarify the mesmeric power of his own voice. No matter how indebted to Dario Argento or Jess Franco his movies might be — no matter how removed from time these fables always are — the likes of “Berberian Sound Studio” and “In Fabric” are embossed with such palpable sensuality that they soon come to feel as singularly now and present as the touch of a velvet glove on your skin....