News

Stars: Brandon Routh, Malina Weissman, Harrison Cone, Debra Wilson, Diya Rao, Taia Sophia, Zeke Donovan Jones, Jeff Fahey, Mena Suvari, Peter Wong | Written by Joseph Kahn, Dan Koontz, Samuel Laskey | Directed by Joseph Kahn

Former Superman Brandon Routh stars in this smalltown horror flick from director Joseph Kahn that fondly recalls genre classics such as The Blob (1958) and The Stuff (1985). Directed by Joseph Kahn (Detention), who co-wrote the screenplay with Dan Koontz and Samuel Laskey, Ick is an enjoyably gloopy, blackly comic alien invasion thriller, anchored by a likeable lead performance from Routh.

Set in the small town of Eastbrook, Ick begins in the year 2000, where high school football star Hank Wallace (Routh) has his promising career cut short when he trips over a black plant-like substance on the field, injuring his leg. To make matters worse, his girlfriend Staci (Mena Suvari) breaks up with him soon afterwards and takes...

While there’s a few more fall film festivals popping up in the next month, the major ones are behind us, which means we have a strong sense of the films to have on your radar in the coming months and even through 2025. We’ve asked our writers from across the globe to weigh in on their favorite world premieres from Locarno Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, and BFI London Film Festival.

Our coverage will continue with a few more reviews this week, and far beyond as we provide updates on the journey of these selections, so continue to explore all of our festival coverage here. In the meantime, check out top picks from our writers below and return soon for our extensive year-end coverage.

Soham Gadre (@SohamGadre)

1. April (Dea Kulumbegashvili)

2 and 3. Youth (Homecoming and Hard Times) (Wang Bing...

John Carpenter'S Tales For A Halloweenight: "John Carpenter's Tales For A Halloweenight, Volume 10, brings together true comics legends — 13 writers and 20 artists — for 12 new stories in this tenth anniversary collection. John Carpenter's own "Sos" leads the pack of tales.

John Carpenter's Tales For A Halloweenight, Volume 10 is available today (September 25) at comic shops and at www.StormKingComics.com, and October 8 from book retailers."

---

24Th Annual Screamfest® Horror Film Festival Announces Opening And Closing Nights And Additional Features For The 2024 Lineup: "Screamfest® Horror Film Festival, the largest and longest-running horror film festival in the United States, is excited to announce its opening and closing night events as well as additional features. Taking place from October 8 to 17, 2024, at the Tcl Chinese Theater, Screamfest® will kick off the festival with award-winning filmmaker Joseph Kahn's (Bodied), sci-fi/horror satire Ick, which will have its West Coast premiere with a red-carpet gala screening on Tuesday,...

Joseph Kahn is cornering the market on 2000s-kid horror. Ick is a fast-paced, pop-punk blasting remix of The Blob meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers with sweetened gateway intentions. Those who adore Kahn's Detention (like myself) might feel a spiritual connection, especially with an Aaron David Johnson cameo (Sander Sanderson himself). Like with most Kahn flicks, you'll quickly determine if you're the correct audience for the prolific music video director's energetic styles. Those who don't mind twenty different needle drops in three minutes will bop along as a nondescript entity doubles as suburbia malaise. Khan's four-for-four (in my opinion), but I'm also a sucker for an A+ Creed drop.

Brandon Routh stars as Eastbrook High School science teacher Hank Wallace, the former star quarterback whose collegiate dreams vanished so he became another immobile local. His dad's dead, he still drives the same rusted car from his golden years, and...

Plot: A high school science teacher (Brandon Routh) tries to save his students and town from a parasitic alien entity.

Review: Joseph Kahn is one of the most underrated genre directors. His first movie, Torque, was a big flop but holds up relatively well twenty years later as a kind of quasi-spoof of early-2000s era action movies in the vein of XXX and The Fast and the Furious. His follow-up, the teen sci-fi flick, Detention, was a total blast, and the last movie he made, Bodied, was probably his best movie to date. Sadly, it kinda got lost when the short-lived YouTube Red picked it up. Now he’s back with Ick, which is very much in the mould of Detention and was one of the most energetic and fun movies I saw out of this year’s TIFF Midnight Madness.

For those who may not know, Kahn is...

In a film where no shot lasts beyond a handful of seconds, the world stops briefly to go over the origins of the black goo that gives “Ick” its title. But in the latest madness from director Joseph Kahn, no one in the small, suburban town of Eastbrook can be sure where it came from, or for how long exactly it’s been around. It’s actually this lack of interest in deeper introspection that the longtime pop culture provocateur takes on in what he dubbed a “soft rock horror” movie before its debut at the Toronto Film Festival. With one of cinema’s most malleable metaphors for societal anxieties since such films as “The Blob” and “The Stuff,” he certainly grabs attention.

Only Kahn — still best known for music videos for the likes of Britney Spears and Taylor Swift, amidst features such as “Torque,” “Detention” and “Bodied” — could make...

Filmmaker Joseph Kahn introduced the world premiere of his latest film, Ick, by explaining that he had just finished his cut of the movie the morning before. It doesn’t take a discerning viewer to tell how rushed this movie was, as the “final” product is wildly uneven. Although there is certainly a good movie to be found here, Kahn could have used two to three more months in the editing room to refine everything to a more presentable level.

Ick Review

Ick is a horror-comedy that follows a high-school science teacher who becomes obsessed with the “ick,” a seemingly harmless substance growing throughout his small town that he claimed ruined his life by injuring him on a football field in his heyday. Of course, his suspicions prove to be true as the ick begins to take over the city and its residents.

The first third of the film is...

The world is ending and nobody cares in Ick, Joseph Kahn’s latest genre offering after 2017’s Bodied and 2011’s Detention. Despite only making four features in 20 years, Kahn is ubiquitous in pop culture from his background in directing music videos for major artists like Britney Spears and Taylor Swift. He also directed 2004’s Torque, a film received so disastrously even he pokes fun at it. That might explain why, after making one studio film, he’s directed all of his following films independently––including Ick, a riotous take on the creature feature and a scathing satire of society’s apathetic attitude in the face of existential threats.

It takes almost no time to see that Ick is very much Kahn’s own creation. This film runs rampant without a single studio note. A 2000s-set prologue establishes the backstory of Hank (Brandon Routh), a high school quarterback who was on...

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the MTV Video Music Awards. The inaugural ceremony, held at Radio City Music Hall and hosted by Dan Aykroyd and Bette Midler in 1984, saw the Cars taking home video of the year their groundbreaking clip for “You Might Think.”

Since then, the VMAs have doled out 39 more trophies for their top prize, with only a small handful of acts joining the club of repeat winners. Taylor Swift has racked up four wins while Eminem, Rihanna, and Beyoncé have notched two a piece (both Swift and Eminem have a shot at adding to their totals again this year).

Despite MTV handing over the choice to viewers in 2006, the quality of the winners in the category has remained surprisingly consistent, with only a few total duds or headscratchers. To celebrate the VMAs’ ruby anniversary, we ranked all 40 video of the year winners from worst to best.

You know a Joseph Kahn film when you see one. There’s an approach to style, narrative, and editing akin to pure adrenaline; it’s as though the filmmaker drank a bunch of coffee, ate a bunch of candy, and then immediately made a movie.

Ick, Kahn’s first feature since 2017’s Bodies, is pure sugar/caffeine rush: when it’s on a high, the film is dazzlingly fun and entertaining (sugar high!). But when the blood sugar crashes, Ick’s lows prove extremely uneven and a little frustrating.

In true Kahn form, Ick opens with energy to spare. An extended montage introduces Hank Wallace and his perfectly cliché high school life. He’s got it all: Hank is the quarterback of the football team, he’s primed for a College scholarship, and he’s dating head cheerleader Staci (Mena Suvari).

Everything goes awry when he blows out his knee during a game.

Brandon Routh and Mena Suvari hit the red carpet for the world premiere of their new movie Ick during the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival at Royal Alexandra Theatre on Saturday (September 7).

Other cast and crew at the big event included Zeke Jones, director Joseph Kahn, Malina Weissman, Harrison Cone, Taia Sophia, Jennifer Rade, Debra Wilson, and Jeff Fahey. More pictures in the gallery!

Ick Synopsis: Science teacher Hank’s life (Routh) changes when he reconnects with his first love Staci (Suvari) and suspects a new student is his daughter, all while facing an alien threat in their town.

Brandon and Mena recently joined the cast of another film together, a suspenseful romance called Fate The Movie. Synopsis: It takes a minute to find a special person and an entire lifetime to forget them. While healing at a rehabilitation center after a rescue mission gone wrong, a firefighter Sam Ellis (Routh) connects with Tilly,...

By Sunday morning US acquisitions activity at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) was starting to grind through the gears.

Buyers were understood to be circling Mike Flanagan’s Stephen King adaptation The Life Of Chuck and David Gordon Green’s festive festival opener Nutcrackers, while A24 announced at the start of the day its US buy on Brady Corbet’s Venice Silver Lion winner The Brutalist.

The Life Of Chuck stars Tom Hiddleston and is a drama, despite the heavyweight horror credentials of King and Flanagan. It premiered on Friday and played again as a P&i and public screening on Saturday,...

While the just-ended Venice Film Festival exploded out of the gate with two high-profile acquisition annoucements in its first 24 hours for Maria and Queer, Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) was staying true to form as the first major on-site deals were yet to materialise heading into Sunday.

Anticipated heavyweights like Ron Howard’s Eden, Daniel Minahan’s 1950s drama On Swift Horses, and Anderson .Paak’s K-Pops received their world premieres on Saturday, while Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl first screened on Friday and has sparked admiring talk of a possible awards play for Pamela Anderson’s lead...

Joseph Kahn’s sci-fi/horror satire “Ick” has its world premiere in Toronto Intl. Film Festival’s Midnight Madness slot on Saturday. He previously directed “Bodied,” which premiered at the festival in 2017, and won the People’s Choice Award for Midnight Madness. Kahn talks to Variety about his love for creature features, taking comedy-horrors seriously, and his respect for Steven Spielberg’s scary movies.

Midnight Madness programmer Peter Kuplowsky summarizes the plot as follows: “In the small American town of Eastbrook, nearly two decades after a viscous vine-like growth — colloquially referred to as ‘the Ick’ — began encroaching on every nook and cranny, a nonplussed populus have found their lives seemingly unaffected by the creeping anomaly. The exceptions to this oblivious conformity are Hank Wallace, a former high-school football prospect turned hapless science teacher, and his perceptive student Grace, who both regard the Ick with a suspicious scrutiny that is soon violently validated.

Have you ever wanted to be so wrapped up in your partner, it’s as if you could just melt into them? Well, filmmaker Thibault Emin is taking that sentiment to the extreme — with a horrifying twist.

Emin makes his directorial debut with “Else,” a body horror romance feature about a strange epidemic that causes the infected to melt into their surroundings. Emin is a French director and screenwriter, who is expanding his 2007 short film “Else” into a feature that has been more than 15 years in the making. He co-wrote the script with Alice Butaud and Emma Sandona.

“Else” will have its world premiere at TIFF as part of the Midnight Madness program. The film is a sales title and hails from France and Belgium.

The official synopsis reads: “Introverted and uncomfortable in his own skin, Anx (Matthieu Sampeur) does not consider himself an obvious partner for Cass (Édith Proust...

AGC International has acquired international sales on upcoming Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Midnight Madness world premiere Ick.

Joseph Kahn’s sci-fi creature feature stars Mena Suvari and Brandon Routh in the tale of a washed-up jock turned high school science teacher who teams up with a class of rebellious teens to overcome an invasive infectious substance.

The cast includes Malina Weissman, Harrison Cone, Taia Sophia, Zeke Donovan Jones, and Debra Wilson with Jeff Fahey. Ick premieres on September 7.

Kahn directed from an original screenplay he co-wrote with Samuel Laskey and Dan Koontz. He won the 2017 TIFF People’s Choice Award: Midnight Madness for Bodied.

The 2024 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival is set to run from Thursday, September 5th through Sunday, September 15th in Toronto, Ontario, Canada – and with the start of the festivities just a month and a half away, TIFF has announced this year’s Midnight Madness lineup! The Midnight Madness program is considered to be “the wild side” of the film festival, as it involves “screenings of the best in action, horror, shock and fantasy cinema.” As reported by Deadline, the 2024 Midnight Madness lineup consists of ten films and “features five world premieres, all of which will screen at Toronto’s historic — and allegedly haunted — Royal Alexandra Theatre.”

Midnight Madness will open with the North American premiere of Revenge director Coralie Fargeat’s body horror film The Substance, starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley. Revenge was also part of a TIFF Midnight Madness lineup, so this is a bit of a homecoming for Fargeat.

The Toronto International Film Festival announced today the TIFF 2024 selections for the highly regarded Midnight Madness program, which will open with the North American Premiere of Coralie Fargeat’s anticipated horror thriller The Substance, starring Demi Moore.

From the press release: “One of the most beloved programmes of the Festival, this year’s Midnight Madness highlights the wild and the eerie, from body horror to time travel, supernatural comedy to martial arts action, eccentric thrillers to provocative satire, and found footage to horror-themed punk rock. Surrounded by like-minded fans late at night, Midnight Madness filmgoers face the unknown in the company of strangers. A number of TIFF and Midnight Madness alumni are returning this year, including Joseph Kahn (TIFF 2017 People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award winner), Timo Tjahjanto (who last attended in 2016), and Fargeat (whose debut feature premiered at TIFF in 2017).”

Here’s the TIFF 2024 Midnight Madness lineup:

Dead Mail

Joe DeBoer,...

Brace yourself, Canada, “The Substance” is coming.

The explosive body horror film starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, directed by French heatseeker Coralie Fargeat, has been set to open the Midnight Madness section at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

“Substance” follows Elizabeth Sparkle (Moore), an Oscar winner who commits the high crime of aging in Hollywood. Relegated to a morning fitness show, Sparkle’s world closes in on her when opportunities dry up — until a mysterious stranger offers her the titular substance, a chance at a more perfect version of herself. Sparing any spoilers, Qualley comes into play as the idealized version of Moore. The pair learns that coexisting ain’t easy in Fargeat’s violent fantasia.

Also on the lineup, veteran music video and film director Joseph Kahn will show “Ick,” a tribute to ‘80s creature features starring former TV Superman Brandon Routh and “American Beauty” actor Mena Suvari.

The North American premiere of Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance starring Demi Moore will open Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) Midnight Madness section.

Fargeat’s debut feature Revenge premiered at TIFF in 2017 and she returns with her body horror that became one of the most talked-about films in Cannes.

World premieres include Andrew DeYoung’s comedy Friendship from Fifth Season and BoulderLight Pictures starring Kata Mara and Paul Rudd; and sci-fi Ick with Mena Suvari and Brandon Routh directed by Joseph Kahn, whose battle rap drama Bodied won TIFF Midnight Madness People’s Choice Award in 2017.

The roster includes Kenichi Ugana’s The Gesuidouz,...

“The Substance,” Coralie Fargeat’s body horror film starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, will be the opening night film in the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival’s Midnight Madness section, TIFF organizers announced Thursday.

The Mubi film will make its North American premiere at TIFF after having its world premiere in the main competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The extremely graphic and gory film, in which Moore’s character undergoes a treatment that creates a younger and “more perfect” version of herself, won the Best Screenplay prize from the Cannes jury and stirred up awards talk for Moore’s unhinged performance.

“The Substance” is one of 10 films in the Midnight Madness section, which in the past has showcased films including “Pearl,” “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” “Titane,” “Assassination Nation” and the 2017 reboot of “Halloween.”

Other films in the section include two past Midnight Madness directors, Joseph Kahn...

The Toronto Film Festival’s cult sidebar will screen 10 features as part of this year’s schedule and open with the North American premiere of French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat’s buzzy Cannes breakout The Substance, starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley.

The Midnight Madness programme features five world premieres all of which will screen at Toronto’s historic — and allegedly haunted — Royal Alexandra Theatre. Fargeat is a TIFF Midnight Madness alumnus. Her first feature Revenge debuted at the festival in 2017. Also returning to the festival this year is Joseph Kahn with Ick. Written by Sam Laskey, Dan Koontz, and Kahn, the film’s synopsis reads: Science teacher Hank’s life changes when he reconnects with his first love and suspects a new student is his daughter, all while facing an alien threat in their town. Kahn won TIFF’s People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award in 2017 with Bodied.

Indonesian filmmaker...

The Substance, a feminist horror pic where Demi Moore plays an aging Hollywood star who embraces a secret cloning procedure to save her career will open the Midnight Madness sidebar at the Toronto Film Festival with a North American premiere, organizers said Thursday.

The Cannes award winner from director Coralie Fargeat also stars Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid, and will hit theaters on Sept. 20.

The Midnight Madness section, which launched the career of Eli Roth with Cabin Fever and saw Sacha Baron Cohen arrive in a cart pulled by donkeys to screen Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, booked in all 10 genre movies with chills and thrills for this year’s 2024 lineup.

The program that has film buyers and Hollywood execs staying up after midnight plans world premieres for Thibault Emin’s fantasy pic Else, which stars Matthieu Sampeur and Edith Proust and imagines...

Forty years ago, author William Gibson brought the world a cyberpunk novel called Neuromancer – and an adaptation of that story has been trudging its way through development hell pretty much ever since. Versions of a feature film adaptation have passed through the hands of directors like music video maker Chris Cunningham, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and The Blob‘s Chuck Russell, Torque‘s Joseph Kahn, Cube‘s Vincenzo Natali, and Deadpool‘s Tim Miller. An adaptation of Neuromancer is currently moving forward as a 10-episode series that’s set up at Apple TV+, and we’ve previously heard that BAFTA Award-nominee Callum Turner of Masters of the Air and The Boys in the Boat will be playing the lead character, Henry Dorsett Case. Now Deadline reports that Briana Middleton of Sharper and The Tender Bar is taking on the role of Case’s partner Molly,...

Forty years ago, author William Gibson brought the world a cyberpunk novel called Neuromancer – and an adaptation of that story has been trudging its way through development hell pretty much ever since. Versions of a feature film adaptation have passed through the hands of director like music video maker Chris Cunningham, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and The Blob‘s Chuck Russell, Torque‘s Joseph Kahn, Cube‘s Vincenzo Natali, and Deadpool‘s Tim Miller. While these projects were being put together (and while they fell apart), Neuromancer fans always wondered who would end up playing the lead character, Henry Dorsett Case. Hayden Christensen was rumored to be the top contender when Kahn was going to direct (with Liv Tyler rumored to co-star). Liam Neeson and Mark Wahlberg were said to be in the running for Natali’s version, although it wasn’t said who they might be playing.

Joseph Kahn primarily works as a music video director, having collaborated with the likes of Taylor Swift, Backstreet Boys, Rob Zombie, Mariah Carey, Britney Spears, U2, Aerosmith, Lady Gaga, Kelly Clarkson, Eminem, Maroon 5, Shakira, and many more – but he has also made a few feature films over the years. He made his feature debut with the 2004 action comedy Torque, and has followed that up with the comedy Bodied and the horror film Detention – which we’ve covered for both Awfully Good and Best Horror Movie You Never Saw. Now, Variety reports that Kahn is making a creature feature called Ick, and Brandon Routh (Superman Returns) and Mena Suvari (American Beauty) have signed on to star in the film.

Ick is coming our way from Interstellar Entertainment and producer Steven Schneider. The film aims to “evoke the timeless creature features of the 1980s with an ambitious arsenal of scares and comedy.

A throwback to 1980s creature features, Joseph Kahn’s next movie is titled Ick, and Variety reports today that Brandon Routh and Mena Suvari will be leading the cast.

Variety’s report notes, “The film aims to evoke the timeless creature features of the 1980s with an ambitious arsenal of scares and comedy.”

The site also teases a blending of “old school prosthetics and state of the art visual effects.”

Joseph Kahn’s Ick centers on “Hank (Routh), a high school science teacher who still pines for his childhood sweetheart (Suvari). While discovering he may have a teenage daughter (Malina Weissman), Hank must grapple with a terrifying alien anomaly invading their small town.”

The film was written by Sam Laskey, Dan Koontz and Joseph Kahn.

“‘Ick’ is a movie that evokes primal fears about the world today, and best of all, it introduces a unique mysterious monster. I am thrilled...

Brandon Routh and Mena Suvari will star in Joseph Kahn‘s upcoming movie 'Ick'.The 'Superman Returns' actor and the 'American Pie' actress will star as former childhood sweethearts who are faced with a terrifying alien creature invading their small town.Kahn told Variety: “‘Ick’ is a movie that evokes primal fears about the world today, and best of all, it introduces a unique mysterious monster. I am thrilled that Interstellar has aligned to produce this modern creature feature that is challenging and escapist fun."Executive producer Udaya Sharma added: "Embedded within ‘Ick’ are universal themes of bravery, self-sacrifice and the eternal human quest to face the unknown. Our goal is to not just captivate our audience but to also invoke deep introspection about confronting the unimaginable, while also being incredible pop entertainment for all ages”.In the film, Routh, 44, plays high school science teacher Hank, who is...

Brandon Routh and Mena Suvari will lead the cast of Grammy-winning director Joseph Kahn’s next film, “Ick.”

The film aims to evoke the timeless creature features of the 1980s with an ambitious arsenal of scares and comedy. Routh stars as Hank, a high school science teacher who still pines for his childhood sweetheart, played by Suvari. While discovering he may have a teenage daughter, portrayed by Malina Weissman (“Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events”), Hank must grapple with a terrifying alien anomaly (the titular “Ick”) invading their small town.

Interstellar Entertainment, co-founded by Udaya Sharma, D.C. Cassidy and Michael Fisk, is backing the project. The company is emerging as a powerhouse in the independent film space, currently in the midst of a $100 million fundraising effort.

Kahn has been celebrated as the director of iconic music videos for artists such as Taylor Swift, Eminem, Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga,...

In life, spewing hate comes easy; finding the good takes effort. That’s my mantra for “Revenge of the Remakes.” Get dirty and identify value where others hastily — maybe unfairly — laid harsh criticisms. Any remake, in any genre, faces biased outrage from peanut galleries who refuse to remove their nostalgia goggles. It’s easy to prey on the hate clickers out there, which is why I use this column as a voice for the misunderstood and wrongly delegitimized. A remake isn’t trash because it’s a remake, there’s more to the equation.

That said (and believed), not all remakes are created equal. With soaring highs come subterranean lows. Sometimes remakes are nothing but a copy-and-paste cash grab, devoid of creative ambitions. These examples fuel smear campaigns about remakes at large — and today, we’re dissecting one of the worst.

John McTiernan’s Rollerball is an unprecedented studio disaster...

If you don't know the name Grant Singer, chances are you're familiar with his work as a music video and commercial director. Singer has been behind some of the most visually striking videos of the past few years and has worked with artists such as The Weeknd, Sky Ferreira, Lorde, Taylor Swift, Sam Smith, Ariana Grande, Ariel Pink, and Skrillex. Now, Singer is following in the footsteps of filmmakers like Michael Bay, David Fincher, Gus Van Sant, McG, Joseph Kahn, Daniels, and Spike Jonze by delivering his first narrative feature. With a star-studded cast and a compelling story, Singer's new Netflix thriller looks and sounds like a refreshing addition to the streaming juggernaut's library of original projects. Check out the film's official synopsis below:

Following the brutal murder of a young real estate agent, a hardened detective (Benicio Del Toro) attempts to uncover the truth in a case where nothing is as it seems,...

Motion picture agent vet Spencer Baumgarten died peacefully at his home Monday evening, Deadline has learned. He was 62.

Baumgarten’s cause of death, we hear, was due to complications from leukemia (Aml).

Known as a fierce advocate for his clients for over three decades, Baumgarten’s clients throughout his career included Jon Favreau, Gore Verbinski, Rodrigo Bernardo, Heather McGowan, Steve Conrad and many others.

Baumgarten began his career in the entertainment business in 1988 as an assistant to Joe Rosenberg, thereafter spending time at Endeavor, CAA and ICM. He joined ICM Partners in 2016 and left in September 2019 as Motion Picture Co-Head and Partner to form Smb Entertainment, a management and production company. At ICM, Baumgarten was involved with the teams for such clients as John Woo, Roberto Orci, actress Jingchu Zhang, and filmmaker Joseph Kahn, among others.

He is survived by his partner Kimberly Boyd; former spouse Lara, an attorney at...

In the article series Sound and Vision we take a look at music videos from notable directors. This week we look at Sugar Ray's Caboose, directed by McG. Joseph McGinty, who chose McG as his nom de plume, is the epitome of the nineties, as a music video director. When you think of the style of 90's adverts and music videos, with their Xtreme edge, their pop-art pops of color, their fishbowl lens effects and their oversaturated lighting, let alone the many bikini clad women, baggy pants and spiky haircuts, you are thinking of a McG music video. Together with Joseph Kahn, Dave Meyers and Hype Williams, McG set the style for the era. Smash Mouth's All Star? That's McG. The Offspring's Pretty Fly For...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Let's get something out of the way first. "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always" is not where you want to start as a newcomer to the "Power Rangers" franchise. It is also not a wildly different reimagining of the '90s juggernaut — so don't expect a gritty reboot like the Joseph Kahn and Adi Shankar short film. Instead, what this offers is a nostalgia-filled special that is not particularly different from the many, many, many other anniversary crossover specials the franchise has done over the years.

What does make "Once & Always" different and notable is that it is entirely focused on the original "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" iteration rather than trying to tie in the past with the future. And even if this is still as cheesy as the original '90s show, it does have some edge to it that makes it stand out — plus a loving tribute to fallen Rangers.

Click here to read the full article.

Florian Hoffmeister’s lensing of Tár, the Todd Field drama starring Cate Blanchett as an Egot-winning German conductor in a downward spiral, topped the EnergaCamerimage main competition by winning its Golden Frog.

Also Saturday in Toruń, Poland, during the closing ceremony of the 30th edition of the international cinematography film festival, runners-up were Dp Darius Khondji, who won the Silver Frog for Alejandro González Iñárritu’s personal Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths; and Dp Jamie Ramsay, who collected the Bronze Frog for Oliver Hermanus-helmed drama Living, which premiered in January during Sundance.

Hoffmeister was filming in Iceland and accepted the award via video. He saluted director Field for his “passion about cinematography.”

During the ceremony, Bardo claimed the Fipresci critics prize, and the Audience Award went to Mandy Walker’s bold lensing of Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis.

Festival director...

CBS announces ‘Mariah Carey Merry Christmas to All’ Special

Mariah Carey will entertain fans with a special two-hour live primetime holiday concert special on Tuesday, December 20, 2022. Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas to All! will air on CBS and Paramount+ at 8pm Et/Pt (tape-delayed on the West Coast) and is expected to feature holiday favorites including “All I Want for Christmas is You.”

The special will be filmed at Madison Square Garden Arena in New York City. The iconic singer is also executive producing the special along with Joseph Kahn, Charleen Manca, and Nicola Doring.

Mariah is the biggest-selling female artist in history, selling more than 200 million albums. Carey’s also had 19 Billboard Hot #1 singles over the course of her career. Carey’s a Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee and has won Grammys, American Music Awards, as well as Billboard’s Artists of the Decade and Billboard’s Icon awards.

Mariah...

Not content with just dominating radio and the Billboard charts during the holidays, Mariah Carey has set her sights on conquering the airwaves. The five-time Grammy winner will star in a new holiday concert special coming to CBS and Paramount+ on December 20. The news was first announced November 10 on the “CBS Mornings” daytime show during an interview between co-host and Carey about her newly released children’s book “The Christmas Princess.”

Titled “Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas to All,” the two-hour concert will capture Carey’s December 13 performance at New York City’s Madison Square Garden arena, and feature Carey performing a repertoire of her Christmas songs — including, of course, the inescapable behemoth that is “All I Want for Christmas is You.” The concert is one of two stops on the singer’s mini-Christmas tour; Carey is also scheduled to perform at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto December 11.

“All I Want...

The Queen of Christmas, Mariah Carey, is coming to TV screens this holiday season for a new two-hour primetime concert special, set to air Tuesday, December 20 on CBS and streaming live (and on-demand) on Paramount+. As announced on CBS Mornings, Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas to All! will be filmed on December 13 at Madison Square Garden in New York and will feature the multi-time Grammy winner performing a repertoire of her festive holiday hits, including the chart-topping favorite “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” The concert is a co-production of Sony Music Entertainment and Supply & Demand, with Carey, Joseph Kahn, Charleen Manca, and Nicola Doring serving as executive producers. Sony Music Entertainment is distributing the special. As part of a Paramount Global cross-company collaboration, MTV will offer additional opportunities to view the special after the CBS broadcast. Further information will follow in the coming weeks. Carey is the best-selling female artist of all time,...

Mariah Carey is back for the holidays.

CBS has announced the five-time Grammy winner will host a new two-hour primetime concert special entitled “Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas To All!” The broadcast is scheduled for Dec. 20 at 8 Pm Et/Pt and will be available to stream live and on demand via Paramount+.

MTV will also offer additional opportunities to view the special after the CBS broadcast as part of Paramount Global’s cross-company collaboration.

The special comes after the singer announced the dates for her two-day Christmas revue, which will take place on Dec. 11 in Toronto, Canada and Dec. 13 in New York City.

Filmed in New York’s Madison Square Garden, the upcoming special will feature the singer-songwriter performing a selection of her festive holiday hits, including the chart-topping perennial favorite “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”

Carey, the best-selling female artist of all time, has been inducted into the...

The Queen of Christmas is back with a two-hour primetime concert special next month.

CBS will present Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas to All! on Tuesday, Dec. 20 from 8:00-10:00 Pm, Et/Pt. The show will also be available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+.

Filmed in New York City at Madison Square Garden, the concert special will feature the singer-songwriter performing a repertoire of her festive holiday hits, including the perennial favorite, “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”

MTV will offer additional opportunities to view the special after the CBS broadcast.

Carey is the best-selling female artist of all-time, with more than 200 million albums sold to-date and 19 Billboard Hot 100 #1 singles. She is also an inductee to the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and has been recognized with multiple Grammy Awards, numerous American Music Awards, three Guinness World Record titles, both Billboard’s Artist of the Decade and Icon awards,...

Nicki Minaj is up for doing a movie with Alexander Ludwig.

The rapper responded to Et Canada’s interview with the Canadian actor, who recently appeared in her Nsfw “Super Freaky Girl” music video with her.

Ludwig admitted he wasn’t expecting to be asked about the clip, but he’d been questioned about it ever since it was released a couple of weeks ago.

Yup, that's @alexanderludwig the actor and country musician tells @sangita_patel how his cameo in @Nickiminaj's #SuperFreakyGirl came to be — more with Alex about his new album #Highway99 here: https://t.co/xrB6nHDFSr pic.twitter.com/FCBm90W3i2

— Et Canada (@ETCanada) September 15, 2022

He told Sangita Patel of Minaj’s vid: “When I saw the video I was like ‘Oh, wow’… but I like it.”

Read More: Nicki Minaj Delivers Epic Performance, Thanks Britney Spears, Beyonce And Others In Vanguard Acceptance Speech

Ludwig said...

Nicki Minaj just released the new video for "Super Freaky Girl." Directed by Joseph Kahn, it features Minaj getting flirty at home with "Vikings" actor and "The Hunger Games" alum Alexander Ludwig and walking past Barbie doll neighbors before burning her house down in pink flames.

"Super Freaky Girl" marked Minaj's first solo release in three years. The track, which dropped on Aug. 12, uses a sample of Rick James's "Super Freak" to pay homage to the 1981 hit. "He want a F-r-e-a-k (freaky girl) / F-r-e-a-K (freaky girl)," Minaj raps in the hook.

Minaj previously released singles like "We Go Up" featuring Fivio Foreign and "Do We Have a Problem?" with Lil Baby this year, but there's still no word on when her new album will arrive. However, the rapper did previously announce she'll soon air a six-part self-titled docuseries about her life and career, though the Bron Studios-produced...

Sanaa Lathan is about to make her directorial debut with “On the Come Up,” which is scheduled to have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival next month. And thanks to a trailer, which debuted during Sunday night’s Video Musical Awards on MTV, we’ve got our first look at the film which will exclusively play on exclusively arrive on Paramount+ on Friday, Sept. 23 in the U.S., Canada, Italy, and later in the year in additional international territories.

Based on a young adult novel by Angie Thomas, who also wrote “The Hate U Give,” “On the Come Up” stars newcomer Jamila C. Gray as “Bri, a 16-year-old gifted rapper, who attempts to take the battle rap scene by storm in order to lift up her family and do right by the legacy of her father – a local hip hop legend whose career was cut short by gang violence.

Josh Hutcherson is my favorite kind of movie star. While most of the world knows him for his starring role as Peeta Mellark in "The Hunger Games" franchise, he also lends his talents to weird and adventurous genre films like Joseph Kahn's criminally underrated "Detention," and the ridiculously fun "Tragedy Girls." The short king was put through the wringer on the "Hunger Games" set, having to perform in a role that was as emotional as it was physical. In case you somehow managed to escape one of the biggest film franchises of the 2010s, "The Hunger Games" was a four-part film series based on Suzanne Collins'...

The post Josh Hutcherson's Least Favorite Part Of Hunger Games Might Surprise You appeared first on /Film.

Joseph Kahn‘s Detention deserves its own club when we talk about underappreciated, before-their-time strokes of brilliance. What an embarrassment of riches in a post-meta Scream world where so few imitators live up to Wes Craven’s redefinition of evolutionary slashers. Yes, initial reception led to negative aggregator scores for numerous reasons — too many subgenres smashed […]

The post “Good Taste Is Not a Democracy”: Slasher-Comedy ‘Detention’ Is Better Than Ever 10 Years Later appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

I'm resigned to the fact that I live in a world where a new superhero movie comes out every four months, but we'll never get an adaptation of William Gibson's seminal cyberpunk masterpiece Neuromancer. It's shitty, but it is what it is.

First Joseph Kahn tried and struck out and then Vincenzo Natali got pretty close but the project died as expected.

Now I'm supposed to believe Deadpool director Tim Miller is going to make it happen? After his recent Terminator movie flopped as badly as it did? Forgive me if I don't hold my breath.

At least Amazon is working...

Updated: Apple TV+ has released the official trailer for Mariah’s Christmas: The Magic Continues, Mariah Carey’s upcoming holiday special. It’s set to launch globally December 3 on Apple TV+. You can watch the trailer below.

Previous, Nov. 2: Mariah Carey is returning for an Apple TV+ Christmas special for a second year in a row and is set to perform new single Fall In Love At Christmas exclusively alongside Khalid and Kirk Franklin.

Mariah’s Christmas: The Magic Continues follows last year’s Mariah Carey’s Magical Christmas Special, which is still available on the SVoD platform. That special also featured Jennifer Hudson and Ariana Grande and was directed by Roman Coppola.

Carey will use the show to perform brand new single Fall In Love At Christmas with Khalid and Franklin for the first time.

She is exec producing alongside Tim Case, Charleen Manca and Matthew Turke of...

Mariah Carey has shared the first trailer for her latest holiday special Mariah’s Christmas: The Magic Continues, arriving on AppleTV+ on Dec. 3rd.

The special will feature the live debut (and only performance) of her new seasonal single “Fall in Love at Christmas,” featuring Khalid and Kirk Franklin, a new rendition of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” as well her Christmas classic “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”

Warming up the sleigh and prepping the reindeer for our holiday extravaganza together! Arriving to your screens December 3rd on @AppleTV!

Mariah Carey is extending her holiday reign with Mariah’s Christmas: The Magic Continues, a new special premiering globally on Friday, Dec. 3.

Apple TV+ just released the trailer for its second Carey-fronted Christmas extravaganza, offering a first look at the glittery, golden spectacle. “I can’t not celebrate Christmas with the world,” Carey says — and we thank her for it.

More from TVLineThe Afterparty: Tiffany Haddish & Co.'s Ensemble Mystery-Com Sets January Premiere Date at Apple TV+Jennifer Garner Replaces Julia Roberts in Apple's The Last Thing He Told MeThe Shrink Next Door: Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd Break...

Apple TV Plus and Mariah Carey released a trailer for “Mariah’s Christmas: The Magic Continues,” the holiday spectacular scheduled to debut globally on Dec. 3.

In the trailer, which can be viewed below, Carey is showcased on a golden stage in matching dress, surrounded by performers and a live band in a variety of festive outfits from top hats to red suits. The trailer also features Khalid and Kirk Franklin, as well as Carey’s 10-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe.

“I can’t not celebrate Christmas with the world,” says Carey.

The holiday special, which is the second such collaboration between the singer/songwriter and Apple TV Plus, will include the first performance of Carey’s new single with Khalid and Franklin, “Fall in Love at Christmas,” as well as a new rendition of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).” “Mariah’s Christmas: The Magic Continues” will also feature an exclusive...