LOS ANGELES (AP) -- After two consecutive record-breaking years at the domestic box office, 2017 was the year the momentum slowed — even with the late adrenaline boost of a new "Star Wars" film. When all is said and done on Jan. 1, the domestic box office is estimated to net out with $11.1 billion in grosses, down around 2.6 percent from 2016's $11.4 billion, according to projections from box office tracker comScore. Looked at another way, it's also likely to be the third highest grossing year in cinema history... Read More, Comment
NEW YORK (AP) -- The day after last November's presidential election, Paul Thomas Anderson boarded a plane to London to go make a movie about love. "Phantom Thread," which began shooting days after the inauguration, is a hushed chamber drama made amid a time of wall-to-wall cacophony. For his second — and as it has turned out, likely final — collaboration with Daniel Day-Lewis, the protean 47-year-old Californian filmmaker endeavored to make his British gothic romance — his "Rebecca." "We have a really old-... Read More, Comment
LOS ANGELES -- Strike Anywhere, a production company with offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco, has added director Katya Bankowsky to its roster for commercials and branded content in the U.S. This marks the first production house roost for Bankowsky, a former agency executive producer and director, having last been at mcgarrybowen. Bankowsky is a California native who became a New Yorker upon graduating from Yale. After college, she took a production job in advertising, which served as her film school... Read More, Comment
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Willem Dafoe came into "The Florida Project" ready to be transformed, and working in a cheap motel helped him get there. The 62-year-old actor has been collecting accolades — including a Golden Globe Award nod and Screen Actors Guild Award nomination — for his performance in the Sean Baker film, which was set and shot at the Magic Castle hotel in the shadows of Orlando's Disney World. Dafoe said filming at a real hotel that houses homeless families like the one at the heart of the film changed... Read More, Comment
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) -- Saoirse Ronan is eyeing the lobster salad at Spago in Beverly Hills and has a difficult decision to make regarding cherry tomatoes. She doesn't like them, but she also doesn't like asking for special accommodations. "It's so Irish," Ronan explains. "In Ireland you feel so guilty for requesting something to not be in the dish. No one would ever do it. But I like that they do it over here. I like the gutsiness!" After a moment of deliberation she decides to go full American and ask the waiter... Read More, Comment
MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) -- Google's one-time "adult supervisor" is getting closer to retirement. Eric Schmidt, who took over as CEO in 2001 three years after investors demanded more mature leadership for the fast-growing tech giant, is stepping down as executive chairman of Google parent Alphabet in January. The 62-year-old billionaire will become a technical adviser and will continue to sit on the board of the company that was formed to contain Google and its sprawling so-called "moonshot" subsidiary businesses in 2015... Read More, Comment
With echoes of "Rebecca" and lavish Max Ophuls productions, writer and director Paul Thomas Anderson spins the tale of an obsessive fashion designer and his muse into a suspenseful and often funny parlor drama with all the trimmings in "Phantom Thread ." Anderson is revered for his grand stage meditations on the American man ("Boogie Nights," ''There Will Be Blood," ''The Master"). But here, and perhaps to the dismay of some of his fans, he both narrows and redirects his gaze elsewhere to a... Read More, Comment
It's hard to say what's better about the first half of Alexander Payne's wonderfully weird — or is it weirdly wonderful? — "Downsizing": the audacity of its premise, or the delicious skill with which Payne executes that premise, detail by comically ingenious detail. The fact that the film shifts discernibly in the second half, going places and tackling ideas one wouldn't necessarily expect, will surely disappoint some and please others. But there's no doubt about one thing: the director's... Read More, Comment
NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- The Television Academy has announced the newly elected members to the Board of Governors who will serve their two-year terms beginning on January 1, 2018 – December 31, 2019. Governors elected to serve a first-ever two-year term are: Lesley Aletter, Brenda Brkusic, Jeff Calderon, Rich Carter, Terri Carter, John Debney, Keiren Fisher, Greg Kupiec, Eboni Nichols, Laurie Parres, Christopher Reeves, Glenn Rigberg, Jill Sanford, John Simmons, Halina Siwolop, Steven Spignese and Michael Spiller... Read More, Comment
NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- The Television Academy has announced its 2018 changes in membership requirements as approved by its Board of Governors. Among the changes is the expansion of membership to include personal publicists in the Professional Representatives Peer Group, short form writers in the Writers Peer Group and colorists in the Picture Editors Peer Group. “It’s the Television Academy’s mission to create a membership body that reflects the many diverse professions and endeavors of those working in the... Read More, Comment
Aaron Sorkin has a knack for timing, and not just in the obvious way. The Oscar-winning writer of "The Social Network," ''Moneyball" and other fast-talking, crackling scripts has been celebrated for his mile-a-minute wordplay. But he's also been criticized for not exactly featuring complex, strong female characters in the male-centric worlds of his stories. In "Molly's Game," his first film with a female protagonist and his directorial debut, Sorkin turns that around, presenting one of the more... Read More, Comment
Annette Bening gives Gloria Grahame a nobility rarely shown to faded Hollywood actresses in "Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool," a tender if generic portrait of aged glamour. Based on the 1986 memoir by Peter Turner, Paul McGuigan's film joins the dubious movie genre about close encounters with Hollywood royalty. In films like "My Week With Marilyn" (2011) and "Me and Orson Welles" (2008) an outsider is unexpectedly thrust into a short-lived intimacy with a star. The self-aggrandized "me" of... Read More, Comment
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korean prosecutors on Wednesday demanded a 12-year prison term for Samsung's jailed billionaire heir, Lee Jae-yong, who maintained his innocence during an appeal of his conviction on bribery and other charges. In August, a lower court sentenced Lee to five years in prison for offering bribes to former South Korean President Park Geun-hye and her confidante while Park was in office. Both Lee and prosecutors, who earlier had requested a 12-year prison term, appealed that ruling. Prosecutors... Read More, Comment
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- George Foreman connected with the family of his first Olympic opponent in Lithuania. Henry Winkler made peace with his family history in Berlin. William Shatner rode majestic horses in Madrid. And Terry Bradshaw strode through a Munich city park wearing nothing but a cowboy hat and sneakers. "That was not a good moment for me," the 69-year-old former football star said. After traipsing across Asia in the first season of their travelogue reality show, "Better Late Than Never," the sports and... Read More, Comment
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Rose Marie, the wisecracking Sally Rogers of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and a show business lifer who began as a bobbed-hair child star in vaudeville and worked for nearly a century in theater, radio, TV and movies, died Thursday. She was 94. Marie had been resting in bed at her Los Angeles-area home when a caretaker found she had stopped breathing, said family spokesman Harlan Boll. "Heaven just got a whole lot funnier" was the tribute posted atop a photo of Marie on her website. She was a child... Read More, Comment
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Ellen DeGeneres, known for keeping her comedy on the nice side, lets her inner meanie out for "Ellen's Game of Games." NBC's new primetime game show, which begins its regular run at 8 p.m. EST Tuesday after a December sneak peek, subjects its contestants to measured torments that delight host and executive producer DeGeneres. "It's hilarious to see the panic and fear on their faces if they get the answer wrong," she said, knowing the possible consequences include being drenched with something... Read More, Comment
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A current TV funny lady, a vintage one and a time-honored Christmas movie won over viewers in the run-up to the holiday. A preview of Ellen DeGeneres’ new NBC primetime game show, “Ellen’s Game of Games,” and CBS’ pair of “I Love Lucy” episodes starring Lucille Ball landed in the top 20 last week, Nielsen said Wednesday. A Christmas Eve broadcast of “It’s a Wonderful Life” on NBC was the week’s top-rated holiday movie. But it took football and multiple choruses of “The Voice” to power NBC to No... Read More, Comment
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" claimed the biggest Christmas haul over the four-day holiday weekend, adding almost $100 million to its coffers, according to box office figures released Tuesday. Four new releases couldn't catch the intergalactic juggernaut. Of the new films, "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" fared best. The Sony adventure debuted in second place with $55.4 million. The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of... Read More, Comment
Agency Barton F. Graf and the Psyop studio teamed on this animated short, “Epic Comeback,” promoting Supercell’s Clash Royale, one of the top grossing games in the world. The idea behind the film is that the only thing better than watching your team win is watching your team snatch victory from the jaws of certain defeat. And when that happens over just three minutes of an intense Clash Royale battle, the feeling is even better. “Epic Comeback” takes Clash Royale fans to the last dramatic... Read More, Comment
We see the fear, anxiety and sorrow of parents who have lost their children for a few minutes in a mall or other public place. Then we’re asked to imagine how one lives with those feelings and torment for years in the aftermath of natural disasters or conflicts in war-torn regions. The Red Cross helps to reunite three families a day who have been long separated in conflict-stricken areas or due to natural disasters. Directed by Simon Ratigan of HLA for adam&eveDDB, London, this :90 titled “... Read More, Comment
$antaCon is a 90-second heist film written and directed by the team of Hugo & Dean, two creative directors from BBH New York. Hugo & Dean wanted to create a film they could “shoot on the biggest film set in the world--Manhattan.” The story was based on a real event in which a thief robbed a bank dressed as Santa. This is Hugo & Dean’s first foray into directing and to pull it off they worked alongside BBH New York’s internal production company Slaughterhouse. Read More, Comment
Set to Bing Crosby’s 1943 hit “I’ll be Home for Christmas,” this film for U.K. road safety organizations the FIA Foundation and AA Charitable Trust shows a father and daughter innocently texting back and forth while he’s driving home for Christmas. She’s eager to see him and get Christmas started. The devastating effects of texting and driving are highlighted when the film shows a haunting image of the father’s fatal accident and culminates in a final, heart-breaking scene as the young girl... Read More, Comment
The majority of car-owning Americans don’t know how to fix a flat and put off buying new tires—and the combination makes for a lot of “oh no!” moments. The newest campaign from Big O Tires takes a humorous look at car repair by turning the big “oh no” moment into a big “oh yes!” The “Big O Yes!” campaign, created by Kansas City-based agency Barkley, portrays the crises that come in assorted instances, including in this spot in which a wobbly tire plays havoc with a platter of green jello being... Read More, Comment