Welcome to MovieMaker’s Movie News Roundup, where we succinctly summarize movie news and just movie news — always with links back to the original source. Today: Harvey Weinstein gets 23 years; what The Hunt is and isn’t, and Cannes is “reasonably optimistic.”
Weinstein Gets 23 Years: The disgraced producer received the sentence, which is a few years short of the maximum possible, after the women he assaulted spoke out against him in court, The Associated Press reports. His lawyers were seeking the minimum five-year sentence on his sexual assault and rape convictions.
Theaters Stay Open: Despite calls for limits on mass gatherings, theaters hope to remain open, The Hollywood Reporter says. The owner of Regal Cinemas, the nation’s second-largest theater chain, said last week that people are still going to movies.
C’est La Vie: Cannes president Pierre Lescure tells Le Figaro that the festival remains “reasonably optimistic” it can go on, but will cancel because of coronavirus fears if necessary. He also says it has an endowment that will allow it to miss a year, if need be.
The Hunt Has Its Day: The Hunt, which Universal temporarily cancelled over objections to its liberals-hunt-conservatives premise — is out Friday. And isn’t what anyone expected. Far from a liberal revenge fantasy, it’s an attack on anyone dumb enough to assume the worst about anyone else.
Karyn Kusama to Dracula for Blumhouse: She will work from a script by Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay, who also worked with her on Destroyer and The Invitation, The Wrap reports. Blumhouse is getting another bite at the Universal monsters after the success of The Invisible Man.
And now, a little section we like to call “yesterday’s movie news”:
Peter Rabbit 2 Pushed to Fall: We stayed calm through the James Bond thing, but now the coronavirus has gone too far: Peter Rabbit 2 is hopping to August, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which was too tasteful to go for the hopping joke. Peter Rabbit and his posh denim jacket (above) were previously scheduled to be out by April 3 in the U.S. and earlier overseas. Here is everything cancelled/delayed by this dumb virus we’re really starting to not like.
SXSW Lays Off One-Third of its Full-Time Staff. The festival says in a sad statement: “Due to the City of Austin’s unprecedented and unexpected cancellation of the SXSW 2020 events in March, SXSW has been rigorously reviewing our operations, and we are in the unimaginable position of reducing our workforce.”
Corey Feldman Doc Premiere Seems Cursed: Corey Feldman tried to stream his pay-per-view documentary Monday night, but it was bedeviled by technical problems he blamed on hackers, according to TheWrap, which says a screening didn’t go perfectly, either. In the doc, Corey Feldman says Corey Haim told him Charlie Sheen raped him on the set of the 1986 film Lucas, which Sheen has previously denied. We’ve reached out to reps for Feldman and Sheen for comment.
Stephen King Weighs In: “No, coronavirus is NOT like THE STAND,” tweets the author of The Stand. “It’s not anywhere near as serious. It’s eminently survivable. Keep calm and take all reasonable precautions.”
Is the Cancelled Woody Allen Book Deal ‘Private Censorship’? In a commentary for beloved film publication MovieMaker, Michael Maiello argues that cancelling Woody Allen’s book is akin to firing someone for a political bumper sticker.
How a Church/Cinema Partnership Collapsed: IndieWire investigates the end of a long-celebrated partnership between the True/False Film Festival and the evangelical church The Crossing.
Clueless Pop-Up Postponed: This is vital movie news we somehow missed last week. We’re sorry. No word on why it was postponed. As if. 
And now, a little section we like to call yesterday’s movie news:
Tom Brady Launches Production Company, Joins Russo Bros.: New England Patriots (for now) quarterback Tom Brady is launching a film and TV company called 199 Productions, Deadline exclusively reports, and one of his first projects is to team with Joe and Anthony Russo’s AGBO Films on a “big-screen 3D adventure documentary” called Unseen Football.
Black Widow v. Two Villains: The final Black Widow trailer reveals much more about the latest MCU villain, the skull-masked Taskmaster, and about Marvel’s plans to release the film on schedule, despite coronavirus fears.
The Stock Market Could Be Better: Several entertainment stocks have hit 52-week lows thanks to coronavirus/Covid-19, The Hollywood Reporter informs us, as sad music from the 1930s plays mournfully in the background.
Here is a picture of the stock market today, courtesy of Marvel’s Black Widow.
R.I.P. Max Von Sydow: The Oscar-nominated actor has died at 90. He is known for such wide-ranging projects as The Seventh Seal, Flash Gordon, Game of Thrones, The Exorcist, Minority Report and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Christian Bale on What Patrick Bateman Would Be Doing Now: Bale, just confirmed as the villain in Thor: Love and Thunderer, told us for our 20th anniversary oral history of American Psycho that he thinks his character in that Mary Harron cult classic might run for president if he were around today. At least we’d have fun music? Here are Bale’s remarks about President Bateman and Tom Cruise.
Bernie Sanders Likes Exactly the Movies You Would Expect: “Even his amusements seem to be in character. He uses an iPad (not a phone) to devour social media and news, and loves to watch old boxing matches and movies like The Wolf of Wall Street and Melancholia, a 2011 dystopian drama that ends with the obliteration of the Earth,” says a New York Times profile.
First Cow First: Kelly Reichardt’s new film First Cow had her best-ever opening at the indie box office, Deadline reports. Read Reichardt’s fascinating conversation with Eliza Hittman — whose new film Never Rarely Sometimes Always opens Friday — about casting, shooting on film, and why the car ride to set is very important.
Reichardt Didn’t Love Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood: She told Mel Magazine she didn’t understand “how the macho-man thing just keeps being interesting to anybody,” citing scenes in which Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt’s character) stands shirtless on a roof, beats up Bruce Lee, and kills murderous hippies. “The idea of white man as savior? Please — as if that has any relevance anywhere on the planet.”
Beijing International Film Festival Indefinitely Postponed: The Hollywood Reporter has the not-surprising story. Here’s our full, unenjoyable list of every event cancelled, delayed or imperiled by coronavirus fears. Remember to wash your hands often, for at least as long as it takes to explain the plot of Black Widow to a total stranger.
Share:
