The “Thor: Love and Thunder” writer-director revealed on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert that his 2014 vampire mockumentary “What We Do in the Shadows,” er, borrowed, from fellow NZer Peter Jackson’s big-budget “Lord of the Rings” epic “The Hobbit.” “When I did ‘What We Do in the Shadows,’ when Jemaine [Clement, the film’s co-writer and star] and I were shooting that, we didn’t have much money to do that film, and ‘The Hobbit’ had just wrapped,” Waititi explained....

“I’ve decided if I wanted to do something like [a ‘Reservoir Dogs’ reboot], I would do it more on stage. I think that would be cool,” Tarantino said. “It’d be a great stage play. My thought process was, ‘Well, if it’s a strong piece of material, it would work doing it any time.’ It does seem timeless. And then just with a new group of actors, that would have a new life....

After an initial October 8 memo send to leadership brass, on Monday Sarandos sent out an all-staff memo (obtained by Variety) and the backlash was swift. A group of trans employees and allies is planning a staff walkout on Wednesday, October 20 in protest of Sarandos’ comments. The internet was quick to weigh in on Sarandos’ assertion that content “doesn’t directly translate to real-world harm.” “We know that a number of you have been left angry, disappointed and hurt by our decision to put Dave Chappelle’s latest special on Netflix,” Sarandos wrote in the email obtained by Variety....

And yet, wherever it came from, the best movie music of 2020 arrived like a vital, wordless diary of how it felt to live through the last 12 months — or at least to survive them. Even when they were reduced to mere background noise, some of the year’s standout scores pulsed with inescapable anxiety, others spoke to a purgatorial sense of longing, and a small handful even offered a much-needed respite from the world around them....

By the time Sony and Microsoft released their new consoles in November, even thin launch day lineups, unaffordable prices, and severe product shortages couldn’t entirely stem the optimism they offered for the future, or their implicit promise that there’s going to be a future at all. Here are IndieWire’s picks for the 11 best games of 2020. 11. “Final Fantasy VII Remake” In a year full of blockbuster remakes, some much safer than others, the boldest reinvention of all was reserved for one of the most sacred video games ever made....

Fortunately, there were no shortage of debuts worthy of celebration, and many of them did find their way to audiences. This year’s best first films tackled a wide range of subjects and styles, introducing filmmakers that we know we’ll be tracking in the years to come. But no matter what the future brings, their legacies are secure thanks to these stellar achievements. When it comes to the concept of the directorial debut, we like to take a purist approach....

The formerly homeless actress revealed her spending habits, including living off of $500 per month early in her career, when she began booking roles on Tyler Perry’s “If Loving You Is Wrong” and “The Carmichael Show,” where she “started making a little bit of money” from acting. “I started trying to figure out how to create generational wealth. The fastest way to do it and the first way you should go about doing it is buy some land,” Haddish said in a Cosmopolitan cover story....

“This is the filmmaker who, this year, has risen into the 2020 vision of the entire cine-­passionate planet like a new sun,” Swinton writes. “Whip-smart, highly skilled, supremely cine-­literate, exuberant, irreverent, self-determining, deeply romantic, with a voracious delight in the absurd, highly principled, precision-tuned, compassionate to the last: his films have always been all this. It just seems to be time for the world to catch up.” Bong’s journey with “Parasite” started at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where the movie became the first South Korean title to take home the Palme d’Or....

In a new interview with EW, Hanks opened up about the research he did about the shadowy power broker and what ultimately convinced him to make the movie. The actor said that he was interested in the codependent role that the two men had, and the way their intense business relationship ultimately shaped American culture. “Baz said, ‘There would’ve been no Colonel Tom Parker without Elvis. And there certainly would’ve been no Elvis without Colonel Tom Parker....

The festival will celebrate its twentieth anniversary during this latest edition, bringing festival-goers and filmmakers to an assortment of “iconic outdoor sites” around New York City, including Brookfield Place New York, Pier 57 Rooftop, The Battery, Hudson Yards (Manhattan); Empire Outlets (Staten Island), and The MetroTech Commons (Brooklyn). In addition to the venues, Tribeca will host community screenings in all New York City boroughs including the Bronx and Queens using several 40-foot state-of-the-art LED cinemas, the first mobile HD screens in the country....

The Festival, which had the honor of welcoming back in-person audiences, concludes on June 20. The top honors in feature films went to “The Novice,” “Brighton 4th,” and “Ascension.” Chanel James and Taylor Garron won the Nora Ephron Award and a $25,000 prize for “As of Yet.” The award, created nine years ago, honors a female writer or director embodying the late filmmaker. “It’s been a challenging time for filmmakers, storytellers, and actors, and we’re so proud to honor the perseverance and dedication many of them displayed while working through the many obstacles that arose as a result of COVID-19,” said Cara Cusumano, Tribeca festival director, in a statement shared with press....

The organization announced as much on Friday, reversing an earlier decision to collapse Variety Talk and Variety Sketch Series category that would encompass not only late night talk shows, whether airing nightly or weekly, but also sketch series, live or otherwise. “While the Academy remains concerned about the number of series produced and the relatively small pool of entries in the Variety Sketch genre, it acknowledges that the differences between Variety Sketch and Talk programs merit separate consideration,” the organization said in a statement....

“It was a tough character to embody, the Hobbs character,” Diesel said. “My approach at the time was a lot of tough love to assist in getting that performance where it needed to be. As a producer to say, ‘Okay, we’re going to take Dwayne Johnson, who’s associated with wrestling, and we’re going to force this cinematic world, audience members, to regard his character as someone that they don’t know....

Fisher first made accusations against Whedon in July, when he posted on Twitter that the director’s “on-set treatment of the cast and crew of ‘Justice League’ was gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable” and that Johns and Berg enabled him. On Thursday, the actor tweeted that WarnerMedia was launching an investigation, while doubling down on his claims against the filmmakers. “I believe this investigation will show that Geoff Johns, Joss Whedon, Jon Berg (and others) grossly abused their power during the uncertainty of AT&T’s merger with Time Warner,” Fisher wrote....

Microsoft is celebrating 20 years of Xbox, which means it’s a great time to step your game up with a subscription to Xbox Game Pass. Between shipping delays and chip shortages, the holiday season already feels a little ominous for gamers, and while it’s not always easy to keep track of all the new video games, consoles, and other gaming gear, signing up for a video game subscription service might help ease some anxiety....

The streamer also brings actor John Krasinski back into the world of Tom Clancy with the third season of “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan.” This installment finds CIA officer Jack Ryan wrongly accused of treason and on the run from his own government as he races against the clock to stop a global catastrophe. The season hits December 21. If you’re in the market for classic television, all 12 seasons of the long-running police drama “NYPD Blue” make their debut on the service....

“Depending on ‘Mank’s’ reception, I’ll either go see [Netflix executives] sheepishly asking them what I can do to redeem myself or take the attitude of the arrogant asshole who’ll require making other films in black and white,” Fincher quipped about what he will do next for “Netflix” after “Mank.” “No, I’m here to deliver them ‘content’ — whatever it means — likely to bring them spectators, in my small sphere of influence....

Former Los Angeles Lakers champion Kareem Abdul-Jabbar penned a Substack blog post titled “‘Winning Time’ Isn’t Just Deliberately Dishonest, It’s Drearily Dull” to call out the historical inaccuracies of the series and criticize its intentions. Abdul-Jabbar clarified that his opinion does not extend to how he personally is portrayed by actor Solomon Hughes nor about the “factual account” of the Lakers’ “Showtime” era. However, Abdul-Jabbar did note that “Winning Time” repeatedly “commits the sin” of “being boring,” calling the script shallow and lazy....

There was one incident that made me think, though. It must have been after some trip back to the Midwest for the holidays, I came across a misbegotten scratcher from Nebraska — Eppley Airfield, what up — and realized that if it ended up being a big winner, it would be a colossal pain to try and collect on. Of course, this wasn’t an actual concern, what with the terrible odds of lotteries in general, but a girl could dream....