HBO gave a statement following PETA’s request, confirming a horse died on set on June 28. “HBO was saddened to learn that on June 28, during filming on the set of ‘The Gilded Age,’ a horse collapsed and died, likely of natural causes, according to a veterinarian’s preliminary findings,” HBO said in a press statement. “The safety and well-being of animals on all our productions is a top priority, and the producers of ‘The Gilded Age’ work with American Humane to ensure full compliance with all safety precautions....

The network issued a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, reading, “HBO has a long history of producing compelling content drawn from actual facts and events that are fictionalized in part for dramatic purposes. ‘Winning Time’ is not a documentary and has not been presented as such.” HBO added, “However, the series and its depictions are based on extensive factual research and reliable sourcing, and HBO stands resolutely behind our talented creators and cast who have brought a dramatization of this epic chapter in basketball history to the screen....

“We sat down, they played a sizzle reel, they dimmed the lights,” O’Connell recalled. “By the end of the sizzle reel, our shoulders lowered, our breath was calmer — we could feel ourselves feeling good.” The pitch became “A World of Calm,” a 10-episode HBO Max series featuring zen stories gently narrated by the likes of Keanu Reeves and Nicole Kidman, accompanied by relaxing sounds and images. It’s part of a growing segment that turns entertainment into “mindfulness content....

“Homeroom” is about the senior class of 2020. While these resilient kids may not be aware of the looming health crisis that will shit all over their spring semester and complicate whatever plans they may have, we can’t help but wince at how they talk about the future. But a dark pall would’ve been cast over “Homeroom” even if the coronavirus hadn’t been allowed to seep unchecked into American life, and even if the second half of the school year hadn’t been punctuated by the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, among other innocent Americans whose plights resonate personally with the majority Black and brown students in this film....

Now, Gaga has opened up to Variety about how she sought mental health care during the making of the film, and was aided by an on-set psychiatric nurse as production neared its end. “I had a psychiatric nurse with me towards the end of filming,” she said, adding, “I sort of felt like I had to. I felt that it was safer for me.” That’s because I was always Patrizia....

But her idea wasn’t going anywhere until Swedish auteur Ingmar Bergman died: Hansen-Løve just didn’t know that yet. “I spend so much time with an idea of a film,” she told me backstage at the New York Film Festival, where her seventh feature film “Bergman Island” was warmly embraced, just as it was at Cannes earlier in the year. “It evolves continuously to the moment where you start writing. The starting point was the idea of making a film about a couple of directors, one day....

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“SNL” airs on Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET/10:30 p.m. CT on NBC. The weekly episodes, as usual, are available to stream on Hulu the next day — typically by 12 p.m. eastern time — and will also be made available on NBCUniversal’s new streaming service, Peacock, on Sunday as well. If you’re on the West Coast, you can catch “Saturday Night Live” on NBC beginning at 8:30 p.m. PT....

IndieWire and International Documentary Association have again partnered for the organization’s annual Screening Series, which will take place virtually, in addition to select screenings in various venues in Los Angeles including the Hollywood Legion Theater and the Landmark Theatre in West LA. Following the screenings, IndieWire will be posting written and video coverage of moderated Q&As featuring filmmakers and subjects. “IDA is proud to present a thoughtful selection of films that represent a multiplicity of voices, perspectives, and styles,” said IDA Director Rick Perez....

“Scream queen” is a maddeningly nebulous term with simple enough origins. The phrase was popularized among casting directors after the iconic performance of Fay Wray in 1933’s “King Kong” and would be used for decades to describe genre actresses from Janet Leigh in 1960’s “Psycho” to her daughter Jamie Lee Curtis in 1978’s “Halloween” and beyond. These days it’s tossed around with some frequency, used interchangeably — and incorrectly — with the term “final girl”: the last character (most often played by women but they can be of any gender expression!...

Emmy winner Rae, who signed an eight-figure, five-year deal with WarnerMedia in 2021, addressed the controversy surrounding “The Flash” actor Miller following multiple felony charges and abuse allegations. Rae slammed the lack of a “backbone” in the film industry when dealing with “repeat offenders” like Miller, who identifies as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns. “I’m going to be real, the stuff that’s happening with Ezra Miller is, to me, a microcosm of Hollywood,” Rae told Elle....

A dreamy lark of a movie shot piecemeal between July 2018 and April of the following year, Adam Leon’s “Italian Studies” may be set along (and expertly stolen from) the crowded sidewalks of London and New York, but it’s unmistakably suffused with the woozy dislocation and “we have to make something” life-force of a COVID film. No one is wearing masks or social distancing in the heat of lower Manhattan on a summer afternoon, yet Leon’s heroine — a successful author played by Vanessa Kirby at a time just before people on the street would recognize her as one of the gutsiest actresses of her generation, or as anyone at all — is lost in a fugue state that vividly reflects the isolation and uncertainty of the last 18 months....

Per BBC, Iranian media reports Panahi was detained after going to Evin prison to inquire about the arrests of directors Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad. Rasoulof and Al-Ahmad had posted statements on social media decrying the government-sanctioned violence in response to protests in Abadan following the collapse of a building that killed more than 40 people. They were officially detained on charges of “inciting unrest and disrupting the psychological security of society”, state news agency Irna reported....

Gray, whose own biographical “Armageddon Time” is a hopeful entry for this year’s Cannes, is set to helm a new TV series about Mailer’s life. John Buffalo Mailer, the son of the writer (who died in 2007), will produce the project, currently titled “Mailer,” through his Mailer Tuchman Media production company. Mailer was the author of “The Naked and the Dead,” “The Executioner’s Song,” and “The White Negro: Superficial Reflections on the Hipster,” among other novels that proved to be cultural touchstones or controversy-stoking tomes — often in the same text....

He’s got the answer in hand: He’s a parent of three kids, his wife Megan works in the public-school system, and this is the stuff he wants to share with his family. But the real answer? It’s still a James Ponsoldt film. It’s not as dark as its predecessors, but the filmmaker is still using his craft to ask some very deep questions. “Summering” is, after all, about a group of girls (Lia Barnett, Sanai Victoria, Madalen Mills, and Eden Grace Redfield) who discover a very dead body and must grapple with what to do next....

“At the time I did those jokes, I genuinely thought them to be harmless,” Leno said. “I was making fun of our enemy North Korea, and like most jokes, there was a ring of truth to them. At the time, there was a prevailing attitude that some group is always complaining about something, so don’t worry about it. Whenever we received a complaint, there would be two sides to the discussion: Either ‘We need to deal with this’ or ‘Screw ‘em if they can’t take a joke....

“My cancer is in remission — the ‘9 X 12’ mass has shrunk down to the size of a marble,” Bridges wrote on social media, and “my covid is in the rearview mirror.” In a post on his website, Bridges also revealed a first look at “The Old Man,” which marks his first return to television after five decades. “I’m excited to get back to work on The Old Man!...

“It’s like looking at yourself in the mirror and shooting yourself in the face. … You couldn’t intentionally sabotage the show worse than this,” 11-time champion Arthur Chu said. Chu described Richards as “another problematic showbiz guy with a very well-paying job behind the camera.” “Jeopardy!” alumna Anneke Garcia also told The Daily Beast that Richards getting to take on hosting duties was merely “about a show business guy getting to do what he wants” instead of actually finding the best person to replace Trebek....

Carmichael stopped by “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” to promote the film, and the conversation quickly turned to the process of coming out as a public figure, something both comedians have experienced. While opening up about the journey, Carmichael expressed some regret about past jokes he made about the gay community, blaming them on his own refusal to accept himself. “I’m sure some of the bits and things in my life that I deeply regret were a product of, like, self-hate and denying who I really was,” he said....

An indie pioneer who first got her start writing a series of educational films for companies like Encyclopedia Britannica and the Learning Corporation of America in the 1970s, Silver was long aware of the barriers that would likely prevent her from entering into the male-dominated filmmaking milieu. (A telling interview quote that appears on her Wikipedia page: “I had absolutely no chance of getting work as a director”; the Times adds another heartbreaker from a 1979 AFI interview, with Silver noting, “I had such blatantly sexist things said to me by studio executives when I started,” adding that one high-powered man once told her that “feature films are very expensive to mount and distribute, and women directors are one more problem we don’t need....