Laal Singh Chaddha, Review: A run for your money, in branded underwear It’s been fifteen years after Aamir Khan acted in and directed Taare Zameen Par, about a dyslexic child, and 28 years after Tom Hanks captivated our hearts as Forrest Gump, who had an IQ of 75 and needed braces to correct what was believed to be a curved spine. In 2022, here comes a film that is the official remake of Forrest Gump. It could be among the warmest, heart-tugging tales you’ve heard being told, or i...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent What can’t Tom Hanks do? He can MC a Presidential inaugural celebration, and apparently write a top-flight screenplay for recent release GREYHOUND, where he stars as a Navy veteran facing Nazi U-boats. You have to assume he used one of the vintage typewriters from his collection, right? Maybe not.  But now they’re showing the behind-the-scenes green scene skeleton of this Summer release from Apple Original Films. Sum...

By Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent It's been a while since the obelisk fell among the primates in Stanley Kubrick's seminal film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. And whist there are many Hollywood insiders who whisper his involvement in a "staged moon landing" let's face it, George Méliès faked a moon landing in 1902 with Le Voyage dans la Lune. Imagine where humankind would be without having taken this pioneering adventure into the mind of th...

By Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent We're taking a day off here after the Oscars to let The Academy share some great news for film fans and pros... Curated by Screenmancer Staff from The Academy LOS ANGELES, CA: At the 92nd Academy Awards® ceremony, Tom Hanks announced to the audience in the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles and to millions of broadcast viewers around the world, that the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will open to the public on Monday, December 14, 20...

Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Tom Hanks will present the SAG Life Achievement Award to renowned actor, writer, director, producer, and communicator Alan Alda during the 25th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards   The SAG Life Achievement Award for career achievement and humanitarian accomplishmentis the union's top accolade at the 25th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®,    Given annually to an actor who fosters the "f...

9th Jagran Film Festival, Mumbai: The Post, A Star is Born and Maassab make it worth the wake Dainik Jagran, which means ‘daily wake’, is a leading Hindi language newspaper of India and the group also owns the popular tabloid, Mid-Day. Its 9th film festival was held across 18 cities and came to Mumbai on the 27th of September, playing through the 30th. Held at four screens of the suburban multiplex called Cinépolis (formerly Fun Republic), it suffered from many technical an...

Siraj Syed reviews The Founder: Hey Mac, watch out for that Burger! Your McDonald’s burger is not going to be same again. Neither are the fries, or the softees. This is a biopic (read ‘Based on a true story') about the Kroc behind the arches, an American salesman known to the world as Raymond A. Kroc, who consolidated and expanded the two-store enterprise to, nearly, what it is today. Not the founder of the pioneering and iconic fast-food chain, he was more or less solely res...

The king in A Hologram for the King is Saudi Arabia’s, and the hologram involves the Boston sales exec who pitches it to his royal highness. Alan Clay’s the name. Every bit the emotional golem that would suggest, he is America itself, a creature of the corporate mud. Will our has-been marketer win the bid to supply telecommunications to the King’s Metropolis of Economy and Trade megaproject? It doesn’t much matter, because in this film by Tom Tykwer, he&rsquo...

"Through the Pane" will have its Asian premiere in the documentary section of the Beijing International Film Festival in Beijing, China April 16-23, 2016. The film is based on the memoir chapter written by director Dawn Westlake's father about the acceptance of his wife's death. Donald and Helen Gum Westlake were happily married for 62 years. "Through the Pane" won the Best International Director prize for Westlake in February at the film's premiere in the 38th an...

A Bridge of Spies, Review: Spyelberg on spy-swapping--one of theirs for two of ours Old school film-making at its charming best is what Steven Spielberg delivers in this potential thriller, that is, instead, crafted as a compelling commentary--on the sordid business of spying, the acceptance of the hard truth that a foreign spy operating in your country is as loyal as your spies indulging in espionage abroad, and the sacred right of every accused in America to a fair trial, be it a US citizen...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent   What most people will remember from last night, when Penny Marshall was handed the Cinema Icon as Honorary Chairperson of the Hollywood Film Festival, is Marshall’s shoe comment regarding women: “You can’t direct in high heels.” And this opening night was kind of like that, a swag bag of unforgettable lines. Not just from Penny Marshall, who’s bona fides as the first $100 M female director for Tom Hanks brea...

What do you get when you take Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, a script by the Coen Brothers, a musical score by John Williams, and a plot based on one of the most pivotal events of the Cold War? You get St. James Place, the director's latest production, which just wrapped its first leg of principal photography in New York. St. James Place tells the story of what became the first spy prisoner exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union, following the shoot-down on May 1, 1960, ...

  by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent   In the 1920's, Louise Brooks (Pandora's Box, Diary of a Lost Girl) famously took a 50 percent pay cut to work with German director G. W. Pabst, from $1000 a week to $500 a week, and flew to Berlin to make the best movies of the Kansas-born actor's career. In 2014, Jonah Hill cheerfully admits he accepted scale, around $60,000 USD, for a chance to be directed by Martin Scorsese in Wolf of Wall Street, for which he, along...

By Liza Foreman The 26th Tokyo International Film Festival (October 17 – 25, 2013) opened Thursday, with Tom Hanks posing gamely with the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, ahead of the opening night film, the Somali pirate drama “Captain Phillips” in which Mr. Hanks stars. Prime Minister Abe spoke before the screening about the commitment of the Japanese government to “Cool Japan,” a scheme designed to support the growth and export of soft industries, includi...

NYFF51 CAPTAIN PHILLIPS Press Conference: (L-R) Two-time Oscar winner actor Tom Hanks, actor Barkhad Abdi, and director Paul Greengrass, CAPTAIN PHILLIPS. The 51st New York Film Festival (NYFF51) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS press conference with director Paul Greengrass two-time Academy award winning actor Tom Hanks and actor Barkhad Abdi moderated by director of programming/selection committee chair Kent Jones, Film Society of Lincoln Center, commenced Friday, September 27, 2013 at the Walter Reade...

By Maria Esteves – September 30, 2013 The 51st New York Film Festival (NYFF51) Opening Night World Premiere of CAPTAIN PHILLIPS, directed by Paul Greengrass commenced Friday, September 27, 2013 at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center. Industry executives, celebrity guests, festival members, cast and crew attended the world premiere. CAPTAIN PHILLIPS, a real life psychological thriller based upon the book A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALS, and Dangerous Days at Sea, by Captain ...

By Maria Esteves – September 29, 2013 The 51st New York Film Festival 2013 (NYFF51) Opening Night Gala World Premiere of CAPTAIN PHILLIPS directed by Paul Greengrass was held at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, Friday, September 27, 2013. Presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, red carpet arrivals included industry executives, festival directors, celebrity guests, cast and crew. CAPTAIN PHILLIPS opens in theaters nationwide Friday, October 11, 2013. Watch Trailer NYFF51 Op...