Latest news with #FlorencePugh
The Independent
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Julia Garner confirms long-awaited Madonna biopic is still going ahead
Actor Julia Garner has spoken about how she secured the role of Madonna in the forthcoming biopic about the pop icon. Garner competed against other notable actors, including Florence Pugh, and underwent a 'bootcamp' overseen by Madonna herself. She revealed that her audition required her to learn to dance and sing in front of Madonna. Despite previous rumours of its cancellation, Garner confirmed the film is 'supposed to still happen'. The biopic was put on hold for Madonna's Celebration Tour, but work on the script has since resumed.
Roya News
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Roya News
British star Florence Pugh calls out "Israel's" starvation of Gaza
British actress Florence Pugh has publicly condemned the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, describing the situation as 'forced starvation' and a 'war crime.' In a social media story, the Oscar-nominated star urged people not to look away, calling on her followers to face the reality of the suffering endured by Palestinians in the besieged enclave. 'If you've averted your eyes out of shame or guilt or embarrassment in the past, I encourage you to watch and listen and try and help change while we still can,' she wrote. 'What's happened to these people is horrific. Empathy shouldn't be this hard and there shouldn't be this many excuses.' Pugh emphasized that the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is not the result of a natural disaster but a deliberate act of violence. she shared another post that said: 'This is not a food crisis. This is a war crime. This is not a famine. This is forced starvation.'
Express Tribune
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Hollywood vs censorville
A rude emoji was replaced with a politer one in F1: The Movie. Photo: File Film fans in India were outraged to learn that a 33-second kiss scene in Superman was shortened to just a few seconds by their country's censors. Despite the film's 13+ rating, India's Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) felt compelled to sanitise the embrace they described as "overly sensual." When it was created through the Cinematograph Act of 1952, the CBFC's official mandate was to certify films according to age categories, but it has since become notorious for its role as a censor. Recent examples of alterations in major Hollywood productions include replacing a middle-finger emoji appearing in F1: The Movie with a fist emoji. Swear words were muted in Marvel's Thunderbolts and Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning. In Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer (2023), the Indian board had Florence Pugh's nudity covered up with a digitally inserted CGI dress. "If a scene is meant for mature audiences, it should simply be placed in the appropriate category," argued writer Disha Bijolia in Indian online magazine Homegrown. "Instead, the CBFC repeatedly interferes with a filmmaker's vision — cutting into plots, disrupting emotional arcs, and flattening the intent behind entire narratives." Satisfying demand Along with the widespread censorship method of simply banning films, releasing alternate versions of movies is also well established in many countries beyond India. Authoritarian states know that even if a film is banned, it can still circulate illegally, which motivates them to distribute their own "more appropriate" versions of the works. Way before AI-created imagery became widely available, Iran had already equipped the country's censors with new digital technology by 2010, allowing them to tweak dialogues and images that didn't conform to Islamic modesty. The approach is detailed in an 2012 article in The Atlantic, which also shows stills comparing how the original scenes were retouched in the Iranian versions: Women simply disappear from the frame, or their neckline is covered up with a clunky vase. Even Will Ferrell's crotch is hidden behind a wall in the motorsports comedy Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006). Drugs not okay Even though many major Hollywood studios no longer distribute their films in Russia since it launched its full-scale war on Ukraine in 2022, there are still some Western films appearing in the country's cinemas or on streaming platforms. One recent example of a film that circulated in an altered version was the award-winning US film Anora (2024). Censors simply zoomed into various scenes to crop out the depictions of characters using drugs, as shown by independent Russian-language news site Meduza. Meanwhile, the film's nude scenes featuring the stripper played by Mikey Madison were left untouched. A film like Anora would never air on Turkish television. Under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's conservative AKP government, around 95 per cent of the media landscape has been brought into line with their conservative guidelines. Broadcasters mainly avoid sex scenes and portrayals of LGBTQ+ characters. Historical topics seen as promoting "anti-Turkish rhetoric" can be particularly contentious. Cigarettes and alcohol are also blurred on TV, with some stations coming up with creative solutions to cover up the items. Meanwhile, some Hollywood studios have released their own self-censored versions to circumvent bans and blurs. Sony Pictures supplied an alternate version of Blade Runner 2049 to Turkey and other non-Western markets, removing or cropping scenes showing nudity, as film critic Burak Göral first noted. Turkey's Film Critics Association (S?YAD) issued an open letter condemning the censorship, noting that the cuts were "an insult to moviegoers in Turkey." Accessing China China is renowned for banning and shortening films, too. Official censorship guidelines prohibit, among other things, the "promotion of cults or superstition." The 2016 Ghostbusters reboot thus failed to be released in the country despite being retitled Super Power Dare Die Team. Surprisingly, Disney's Coco, which centers on the Mexican Day of the Dead, was authorised a year later. Major productions that have been altered by China's censors include the 2012 James Bond film, Skyfall. A scene in which a Chinese security guard is killed was completely cut out because it suggested that China is unable to protect its own territory from foreign agents. In other "controversial" scenes, the subtitles differed from what was actually been said on screen. In the famous portrait scene in James Cameron's Titanic 3D (2012), Kate Winslet was cropped up to her chin to hide her nudity. "Considering the vivid 3D effects, we fear that viewers may reach out their hands for a touch and thus interrupt other people's viewing," a Chinese official explained. In 2022, social media users widely mocked the censors' alternate ending for Minions: The Rise of Gru. In the original version, villains Gru and Wild Knuckles evade capture by authorities after the latter fakes his own death. But through a series of subtitled stills that were widely compared to a PowerPoint presentation for their poor quality, the Chinese version had Wild Knuckles arrested and imprisoned for 20 years; he starts a theater troupe in jail. Gru is portrayed as simply "returning to his family," with being a father becoming his "biggest accomplishment." Hollywood studios have also been releasing their own alternate versions of movies in China to avoid state censorship — and the PowerPoint slides. The country began allowing a limited number of Hollywood films per year into the country in 1994, and as major studios increasingly competed to gain access to the restricted and lucrative slots, they also started tailoring their stories to please a Chinese market of some 1.4 billion people. A 2020 report by nonprofit organisation PEN denounces the growing trend of producers willingly altering their films for Beijing's censors: Hollywood filmmakers "are making difficult and troubling compromises on free expression," it stated. Iron Man 3 (2013) is a prominent case highlighting this approach. While altered films typically lose runtime, four minutes of extra content were added to the Marvel blockbuster, with exclusive scenes featuring Chinese star Fan Bingbing and actor Wang Xueqi, as well as scenes promoting a local milk brand. In the Chinese version, the beverage helps Iron Man/Tony Stark recover from an injury.
Pink Villa
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Pink Villa
The Fantastic Four: First Steps Matches Thunderbolts Rotten Tomatoes Score on Release Day, Find Out
The Fantastic Four: First Steps has matched the score of Thunderbolts* on Rotten Tomatoes. The Pedro Pascal starrer, which released today, July 25, went on to gain 88% from the critics on the tomatoes meter and 93% from the audience on the popcorn meter, which is the same as Thunderbolts*. The latter film was dropped in theaters on May 2, 2025, and was well-lauded by the fans of Marvel. The movie starred Sebastian Stan and Florence Pugh, amongst others. The ratings for both the superhero films are considered to be great. The audience verdict is out It has been a great year for Marvel so far. The studios have managed to pull themselves back up after a terrible previous phase, which included movies like Thor: Love and Thunder and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The fans are loving the stories and new faces taking over the franchise and powering it up with their brilliant acting skills. Speaking of new faces, Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby have impressed the viewers of Fantastic Four with their presence onscreen, and the results are quite visible in the data provided above. Moreover, Stan and Florence Pugh's latest film worked as the revival of Marvel. The reviews garnered by Thunderbolts* were excellent, and the cast went on to call themselves the 'New Avengers.' According to the media reports, the Thunderbolts as well as the first family of Marvel will join some of the original Avengers in the Doomsday to fight the evil of Victor Von Doom. The other cast members of Avengers: Doomsday include Chris Hemsworth, Robert Downey Jr., Tom Hiddleston, Paul Rudd, Joseph Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and others. Meanwhile, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is running successfully in theaters. Thunderbolts* will soon be available to stream on OTT.
Geek Tyrant
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
THUNDERBOLTS* Director Says the Bob/Yelena Ship Stuff Is Cute But Doesn't See Them Romantically — GeekTyrant
Since the release of Marvel's Thunderbolts* , some fans have been vocal in expressing their hope for a Bob/Yelena relationship. In the film, it was Yelena (Florence Pugh) who gave Bob (Lewis Pullman) a chance to share how he was feeling, free from judgement. Then she went after him in his darkest time to be a friend and help him to know he wasn't alone. The movie was about getting through the hard parts of life, and friendships that sustain us, but some viewers thought maybe there was a chance for Yelena and Bob to have more. The film's director, Jake Schreier, weighed in on the idea in a recent interview with Collider, where he said: "I have seen the Boblena stuff. I think it's really cute. I don't view it as a romantic relationship, personally. But I think we knew that Lewis and Florence having chemistry, regardless of whether that's romantic chemistry or not, that relationship is so central to the movie that it's not a bad thing to have some amount of that." He went on to say: "We were very clear there was never a discussion of, like, 'Is this romantic or not?' I don't think we wanted to cheapen that being there for each other in darker times and the way all of them connect to that idea. That wasn't what we were going for. 'You've got these great actors and so little narrative real estate to build this connection between them before they're kind of ripped apart, and then that connection is going to determine the end of the film. 'Getting their relationship right is so important… if we did get that right, people would enjoy watching them together. And the internet is the internet.' I got the friendship vibe from the film, and from the pairing. I look forward to seeing all the Thunderbolts back in Avengers: Doomsday , which is set to hit screens on December 18, 2026.
