Film & TV

Australian distributor Sharmill Films have acquired standout Toronto Film Festival offering Lady Macbeth.  The film is a Gothic tale of a young woman trapped in a marriage of convenience in 19th century England. Much like the original Lady Macbeth, her actions leave in their wake a maelstrom of murder, mayhem and mystery on a country estate….

Where playing a single Lynch role would be enough to stretch any thespian to the point of madness, John Malkovich has decided to take on seven. Granted, they won’t be unfamiliar roles. Malkovich will team with Sandro Miller to create a lasting pastiche of the Twin Peaks’ Log Lady, Blue Velvet’s Frank Booth, Eraserhead’s the…

Set amongst the racial strains of 1950’s Pennsylvania, Fences is making its big screen transition at a time most relevant. The play by August Wilson won both Viola Davis and Denzel Washington Tony Awards back in 2010 and will make it’s cinematic premiere with Washington in the director’s chair. The play almost became a film…

Madman Entertainment has announced that South Korean Box Office Topper, The Age of Shadows, will make its way to Australian cinemas. The film has seen enormous success since its release in South Korea, earning a cumulative 52 million USD in three weeks, and submission into the 89th annual Academy Awards. Aussies will get the opportunity to…

Bethesda and Arkane Studios have released an impressive new Dishonored 2 Gameplay trailer entitled Kill the Grand Inventor, which shows off some of Emily Kaldwin’s brand new supernatural powers. The studio has also announced that anyone who places a pre-order for Dishonored 2 will receive the game a day before the official worldwide release.  The gameplay trailer gives fans a taste of what…

New Zealand On Air (NZOA) has announced funding for two exciting television comedy series. A spin off of the critically acclaimed New Zealand vampire mockumentary, What We Do In The Shadow, and Māori sketch comedy, Only In Aotearoa, are expected to make their way to New Zealand screens next year. Paranormal Event Response Unit is conceived by HBO’s…

It’s Halloween 1997 – the last night of high school for Corey, Jango and their skater gang, The Gromits. Childhood is over and adult life beckons. But for Corey, his past has some unfinished business. When he encounters Jonah, a former childhood friend but now victimised by Jango’s cruel streak, Corey takes pity on him…

Capcom has announced the release of a Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice DLC. The new episode, entitled Turnabout Time Traveler, brings fans back into the world of Phoenix Wright for their latest case, which deals with a time-traveling bride. The full-length downloadable episode takes place after the events of Spirit of Justice….

The Jewish International Film Festival (JIFF) has announced it 2016 Australian line-up, featuring 66 international premiere features and 19 documentaries alongside it’s opening and closing films, critically acclaimed Biopic Denial, and provocative documentary The Last Laugh. The festival will also screen the Israeli drama, Sand Storm, winner of Best Film and Best Director at the…

Asus have launched a new line of slim Laptops designed for an on-the-go lifestyle. The Iris has the low down on each product and how much it will set you back. ZenBook 3 UX390UA  The ZenBook 3 is made for professionals, and comes in Royal Blue and Rose Gold designed for ‘luxury’. The ultra-portable device…

The first trailer for 20th Century Women,  a film about life and love set in Santa Barbara at the end of the 70’s, has been officially released. The film is about a single mother named Dorthea (played by Annette Bening), who is struggling to raise her teenage son, Jamie. She enlists the help of two…

Marvel Studios and IMAX have teamed up together and will be offering 15-minutes of exclusive footage on upcoming and highly-anticipated superhero film Doctor Strange (directed by Scott Derrickson). On October 11th at 6:30PM, two cinema locations across Australia will be showing this footage in 3D. These will be in IMAX 3D at IMAX Melbourne in Victoria…

Lego Dimensions Battle Arena, a multiplayer-focused expansion for Lego Dimensions, has officially been announced and a trailer has been revealed. Parents be warned though: this is going to cost you a lot of money. The latest expansion for the Lego Dimension franchise is a local multiplayer split-screen combat-arena style game featuring all of the current characters, and some new, from…

With Foxtel earning the title ‘Home of HBO’, showcasing popular favourites like Game of Thrones, the TV network have managed to free up some time slots for exclusive HBO TV titles, Westworld, Divorce and Quarry. Making its premiere, Westworld  will be broadcasted on Mondays from October 3 at 12PM (same time as the U.S). In…

Netflix has revealed the first trailer for their new original series The Crown, which has become the most expensive series ever produced. The first season of the ten-part series has had a production cost of about US$130 million , which is roughly about AU$169 million. The Crown has exceeded the cost of Game of Thrones and Rome with a per-episode cost of…

Making its debut to the world wide web just yesterday, Warner Bros. Pictures launched the final trailer of highly-anticipated fantasy-drama, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. Based on the book written by J.K Rowling, the film starring Eddie Redmayne entails a visual encapsulation of the book, filled with magical elements and eye-catching aesthetics on wizardry…

So Disney today announced that they’re undertaking a “re-imagining” of the all-time best-ever family film The Lion King. And it nearly broke Twitter. https://twitter.com/alexistheory/status/781159071055540228 https://twitter.com/thezakroeshow/status/781158919733403649 https://twitter.com/yeahcate/status/781158853408882688 https://twitter.com/RageNineteen/status/781146603352621056 Boy, that escalated quickly. Fresh from the triumph that was The Jungle Book, Disney will again team up with Jon Favreau for The Lion King remake. Whilst there won’t be any human characters…

As reported by Variety, Mindy Kaling and Emma Thompson are set to star in a new film about the career of a venerated late-night talk show host. Kaling, who wrote the script, is hot property at the moment. Emma Thompson will play the talk show host, who apparently hires her first female writer (Kaling) right before she is…

Netflix are certainly not playing it safe with Luke Cage, their third collaboration with Marvel, nor are they tripping over themselves as they retread through the same universe as Daredevil and Jessica Jones. No, this one has all the ambition and polish of the other two but with the aim to make much more a…

Well, it seems that evil doesn’t stay dormant for long. Season 2 of Ash vs Evil Dead is almost here and we got a look at the very first episode, and it’s just as good as anything the first season had to offer. Now that Ruby and Ash’s deal is in effect – allowing Ruby to rule the underworld…

After falling into 2nd place on the box office ladder, The Secret Life of Pets is back on top again, making $3.41 million this week.  It also earned the the weekend’s best screen average with $6,987 from its 489 screens, and, with school holidays now upon this, this film should continue to perform well. Bridget Jones’s Baby, earning $2.81 million this…

Buckle up, Supanova fans. The Adelaide and Brisbane events in November have just gotten bigger with the addition of some new guests! Already featuring the likes of Nathan Fillion and Lucy Hale, the pop culture expo has added  Holly Marie Combs, Eoin Macken, Cheez TV legends Jade Gatt and Ryan Lappin to both events happening over two weekends in November. Tickets are on sale for…

X-Men: Apocalypse delivers the super fights, the superhero costumes, the supervillain and the super team. But was this latest X-Men film so special that, if it was a person, it would be enrolled at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters? Yes and no. Mild spoilers ahead. Set in 1983, 10 years after the previous Days of…

Out on Thursday, the new film I Am Not A Serial Killer has been a hit of festivals around the world throughout the year, including at the Sydney Underground Film Festival. This Thursday the film will enjoy a limited cinematic release around the country. We caught up with the film’s director Billy O’Brien to talk…

From the mind of the late Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park, Andromena Strain) and based on the 1973 film of the same name comes Westworld. Westworld is about a futuristic theme park populated by artificial beings to make the guests feel as if they are back in the Wild West and it’s HBO’s latest entry to add…

In the lead-up to Sydney’s Manhattan Shorts screening, Australian Director Craig Foster of horror-comedy Overtime talks about the processes involved in creating a werewolf film. The day-in-the-life style werewolf short Overtime was one of only ten films chosen from around the world as a finalist in the Manhattan Short film festival. The short film, which…

From the return of Marvel to new Aussie drama, here are seven shows and a movie you can’t miss on TV this week: Tuesday, 27th September Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, 7Flix, 8:30pm AEST Daisy is on a mission to solve a series of killings after she left S.H.I.E.L.D. Wednesday, 28th September Doctor Doctor, Ch 9, 8:40pm…

Acclaimed French-Polish director, Holocaust survivor and controversial figure Roman Polanski has a history of Academy Award winning films and cult classics. Come November ACMI and Palace Cinemas will be honouring Polanski’s extensive oeuvre by bringing ten of his best works to cinemas in Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane and Sydney. Roman: 10 X Polanski will set out…

John Sturges’ 1960 American Western has been polished and updated with a culturally diverse – for the sake of being culturally diverse – cast and a keen eye on box office glory. Antoine Fuqua’s updated version of The Magnificent Seven is a successful outing in this sense, roping in the likes of a sullen Denzel…

Richard Bates Jr. is a film-maker that I’ve admired ever since I saw his first film, the wonderfully acidic and biting Excision. It successfully melded horror elements with a heavy dollop of dark comedy set within a grounded story.  Add in a wonderfully talented cast with career-best performances from Traci Lords and AnnaLynne McCord, and…