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Haruki Murakami is one of today’s leading authors in the genre of magical realism, bridging the gap between the 20th and 21st centuries, with at least 21 books to have been published and translated into English. Murakami’s books have achieved worldwide success, giving him a stellar reputation in Japanese literary culture and a canon of worldwide recognised literature that will likely survive generations. So it might make sense that Murakami, like many of his peers writing in the genre of magical realism in this day and age, has had his art transformed into different mediums and different languages....

When director James Cameron decided to make Avatar, he wanted to make the first fully-integrated 3D movie and show people just how immersive the technology could be. With the success of that first movie and the sequel, he now stands on the brink of what comes next. Perhaps this next phase should create a different type of story. The story of Pandora. The director has confirmed there will be at least three more installments in the Avatar franchise, but maybe what he needs to do is create a pseudo-documentary showing off the world he’s created....

Despite being around for more than 100 years, commercial cinema has a pretty rigid, unchanging structure, one which is based on a millennia-old framework for drama. There is the first act, which introduces the main characters of the story; the second act presents a problem for the characters; and the third act resolves the problem, with the characters undergoing some sort of emotional change in the process. Of course, there have been breaks in this traditional format throughout the years, from the 18th century novel Tristram Shandy to the work of Jean-Luc Godard, who once opined that a story should have a beginning, middle, and end, but not necessarily in that order....

Left Bank Pictures, the production company behind Netflix’s The Crown, and Netflix are in talks to produce a prequel to the series. This is not a surprise, as The Crown is one of the streaming giant’s most popular shows, earning multiple Emmy Awards and reuniting a five-star cast during its seasons. The show tells the story of the British Royal Family during the reign of Elizabeth II, the current monarch, focusing on its most famous stories and members....

Thanks to YouTube, the new The Dark Knight trailer, which is viewable “only” in theatres, has hit the web. The poor quality video shows some nice sequences from the film and I’m sure the Warner Bros. folks aren’t pleased about this leak … but in actuality, it may give people more incentive to go to a theatre to check it out on the big screen! Click the player to check out the action:...

Variety reports that Gary Ross has signed a deal to direct the upcoming Lionsgate movie The Hunger Games. The director recently appeared at the American Film Market to promote the project. We reported back in September that Gary Ross was Lionsgate’s top choice to direct the high profile adaptation, beating out such candidates as David Slade and Sam Mendes. Ross had entered into early talks for the project, and now it seems the deal is sealed....

Making a masterpiece has its drawbacks — impressing people creates expectations. That’s been the story of the critical response to Neil Marshall’s filmography ever since he hit the scene with the one-two punch of Dog Soldiers and The Descent, two of the defining horror films of the 2000s. The Descent, especially, was so good that it conditioned people to expect the same thing from Marshall, but it’s probably an anomaly in his career, not in terms of quality but in its sheer seriousness....

Developed by Gilmore Girls duo Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino, Prime Video’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is one of the network’s most addictive TV series. The show’s titular character, Miriam “Midge” Maisel, played by four-time Emmy nominee Rachel Brosnahan, is undoubtedly the series’ star as viewers watch her navigate through an accidental thrust into the world of stand-up comedy. But while Mrs. Maisel is truly hilarious on her own, the world she’s inspired by plays a role in the jokes she tells, as well as the people pushing her to grow and evolve like Alex Borstein’s Susie Myerson....

The New York Film Critics Online Sunday named Stephen Frears’ drama, The Queen, best picture of 2006. The film follows England’s Queen Elizabeth II in the wake of Princess Diana’s untimely death in a 1997 Paris car crash. Frears was named best director and The Queen screenwriter won for best screenplay. Helen Mirren won for best actress for her performance as the queen and Michael Sheen was named best supporting actor for his portrayal of Prime Minister Tony Blair....

The latest image from the upcoming DC comic book outing, Black Adam, finds Dwayne “The Rock" Johnson cutting a heroic (or should that be antiheroic) figure. Unveiled courtesy of Twitter user Black Adam News (via USA Today), the image should hopefully have audiences excited to see Johnson finally make his debut as the DC character. You can check out the new image from Black Adam below. Dwayne Johnson has been working hard for a long time to bring Black Adam to the big screen, with the actor believing that he was born to play the role....

It was all about true life dramas in the top ten this week; four out of the films are based on or inspired by real events. One of them was the number one film this weekend - Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson stars in Gridiron Gang. The film made $15 million in its debut; The Rock stars opposite rapper Xzibit as a guy who turns a bunch of hard-nosed prisoners into some hard-nosed football players....

You can bring home a brand new biopic of a famous all-girl band on DVD and Blu-ray next month. The Runaways will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on July 20. The standard DVD will be priced at $27.96 SRP while the Blu-ray will run for $34.95 SRP. We don’t have any cover art images as of yet, but we’ll update this story as soon as we have the images. The film stars Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning and Michael Shannon....

The Sea Beast is a beautifully animated adventure story of discovery and change from Netflix and Producer/Director Chris Williams. Set in a fictional world of ocean and islands that mirrors the romantic era of cannon-laden, three-masted sailing vessels that dared to explore and conquer the high seas, The Sea Beast follows a hunting ship named The Inevitable. The film explore the lives of three people and an unexpected new friend at a time when their paths cross and their worlds turn upside down....

The long running animated series The Simpsons has developed a reputation for predicting many future events during its three-decade run, and that list now includes the newest episode of Game of Thrones. Previously, the series had accurately predicted many events by animating them on the show years before they would happen in real life. This includes the Donald Trump presidency, the NSA spying scandal, and even Disney recently buying 20th Century Fox....

Apple TV+ has revealed a new trailer for The Snoopy Show. The teaser was released in celebration of the milestone 70th anniversary of the first Peanuts comic strip ever published. Charles Shulz brought Charlie Brown and the gang to life in 1950 and the characters have endured in pop culture ever since. Now, Apple is bringing Snoopy and the rest of Shulz’s creations to the world of streaming for this brand new animated series....

Confronted by boycotts and protests at screenings of its films, including bicoastal protests at screenings of its Friday opener Superhero Movie, the Weinstein Co. said Monday that it now plans to release two versions of Fanboys. The company confirmed it will release the two versions on DVD, and a company source later added that they’re exploring two theatrical versions. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Fanboys is about four diehard Star Wars fans who break into George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch in order to see The Phantom Menace on the eve of its release, wrapped production two years ago and has been stuck in limbo as a tug-of-war between Harvey Weinstein and the filmmakers waged over competing versions of the movie....

The Weinstein Company (TWC) announced today that it has acquired from Gaumont all rights to The Intouchables, the French language film produced by Quad Films. The deal covers all rights in North America, the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Scandinavia, South Africa, China and distribution rights for pan-Asian satellite TV. TWC also has remake rights, to co-finance and co-produce an English language remake with Gaumont and the film’s original producers Quad Films....

MovieWeb has your exclusive first look at the Will Turner character standee you’ll be seeing nationwide promoting this summer’s, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. Will Turner is played by Orlando Bloom in the film hitting theaters on July 7th. Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley reunite in Walt Disney Pictures’ Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, an all new epic tale chronicling the further mis-adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow....

For decades, cinema has influenced society’s perception on many social issues from social class to gender. Queerness has not been the exception. For much of the early 20th century, filmmakers were reluctant to portray queer characters in explicit terms due to censorship laws, so they relied on shy glances, queer-coded characters, and other implicit devices. Thanks to the brave efforts of some queer artists, however, cinema has also helped transform mainstream attitudes and opinions of queerness, for the better....

Sad news. This Is Us is coming to an end. Ahead of the award-winning NBC drama’s season 5 finale} this month, it has been reported that the show will conclude with its upcoming sixth season. The news comes from The Hollywood Reporter, though the outlet reports that NBC is set to make the official announcement on Friday. With season 6 arriving on NBC this fall, the show will officially come to an end in 2022....