Latest news with #SouthbySouthwestFilm&TVFestival
Hindustan Times
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Demi Moore to Johnny Depp: Hollywood icons return to the big screen
The second innings is often the most telling — and in Hollywood, it's proving to be just as thrilling. From major motion pictures to independent gems, some of the biggest names in showbiz are stepping back into the spotlight. Whether it's for love of the craft, a powerful script, or a long-awaited career pivot, actors like Matthew McConaughey and Johnny Depp are returning with performances that promise to redefine their legacies. Their resurgence comes at a time when audiences are embracing nostalgia and fresh storytelling in equal measure. Interestingly, this trend isn't isolated, actors Pamela Anderson, Demi Moore, Angelina Jolie and Cameron Diaz have also marked their return with buzzy roles, signaling a season of reinvention for some of Hollywood's most iconic stars. Here's a look at the comebacks that are getting everyone talking. Matthew McConaughey is back in action with The Rivals of Amziah King, his first live-action film role since 2019's The Gentlemen. It premiered at the 2025 South by Southwest Film & TV Festival. The Oscar-winner had consciously stepped back to focus on his memoir Greenlights and spend time with his family. Reflecting on what drew him back to acting, he said, 'I remembered a couple of things. One, how much I truly enjoy performing. Two, I remembered, hey, McConaughey, you're pretty damn good at this. And three, I remembered that acting is a vacation for me, and what I mean by vacation is that when I'm performing, it's my singular focus.' His return is being seen as a heartfelt nod to the joy of storytelling, rooted in self-discovery. After a long hiatus following a storm of personal controversies and sexual misconduct allegations, Armie Hammer is preparing for a comeback with the gritty Western Frontier Crucible. Last seen in Death on the Nile, the actor's return is marked by a cautious buzz. The film's producer Dallas Sonnier expressed enthusiasm, saying, 'I've built a career producing masculine indie movies... And, now, I'm pumped to work with Armie Hammer on Frontier Crucible.' Whether the audience is ready to embrace him again remains to be seen, but the film marks a significant chapter in his attempt at career redemption. Also Read: Angelina Jolie 'fuming' over Pamela Anderson after Oscar snub amid claims of smear campaign by Brad Pitt: Report Tom Hiddleston, best known for his role as Loki, is stepping into a very different narrative with The Life of Chuck, directed by Mike Flanagan and based on Stephen King's novella from If It Bleeds. His last major film role was in Avengers: Infinity War in 2018, making this a notable return to the big screen. The film, a reverse-chronological drama, traces the life of Chuck Krantz — rumoured to be played by Hiddleston — from death to childhood. With a summer 2025 release, the film promises emotional depth and psychological intrigue, and Hiddleston's involvement has only heightened expectations. Also Read: Tom Hiddleston returns to the silver screen with a new Stephen King movie but there's a catch; read Following years of public and legal drama with ex-wife Amber Heard, Johnny Depp is stepping back into acting with Day Drinker, a film that's already turning heads thanks to his dramatic transformation in the first look. Set aboard a private yacht, the story follows a bartender who meets an enigmatic guest, and marks Depp's fourth collaboration with Penélope Cruz. Last seen in Minamata (2020), Depp's return to Hollywood is poised to reignite conversations around his career and his future as a leading man. Pamela Anderson is earning rave reviews with her nuanced portrayal in The Last Showgirl, directed by Gia Coppola. Her role as a veteran Las Vegas showgirl grappling with sudden career uncertainty resonated deeply with audiences when the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2024. Having last appeared in Alone At Night (2022), Anderson's return has been met with widespread praise, cementing her status as more than just a pop culture icon. The film earned her Golden Globe and SAG nominations, though the Oscars snubbed her. She's set to continue the momentum with her role in The Naked Gun later this year. Demi Moore's comeback in The Substance has been one of the year's most talked-about moments. The Oscar-nominated body-horror satire sees her play a fading star desperate for a shortcut to youth—a metaphor-rich role that brought her some of the best reviews of her career. After a relatively quiet period since The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent in 2022, Moore's return to form has reignited interest in her as a leading actress capable of headlining complex, genre-defying stories. Angelina Jolie's return to the screen came with the biographical drama Maria, in which she portrays opera legend Maria Callas. Directed by Pablo Larraín, the film marks a quieter, more restrained comeback for Jolie, whose last few years have been focused more on humanitarian work and directing. With Maria, she steps back into the spotlight with a performance lauded for its depth and emotional gravitas — reminding audiences of the dramatic weight she brings to every frame. The film, which premiered at the Venice International Film Festival last year, is now streaming on Netflix. After nearly a decade-long retirement, Cameron Diaz is ready to laugh (and kick) her way back into the limelight. She stars alongside Jamie Foxx in Back in Action, a comedy-action flick set to release soon. Diaz had famously stepped away from acting in 2014 to focus on her family and personal ventures. Her decision to return came after persistent fan requests and the right script finally landing on her desk. Her comeback has sparked nostalgic excitement among fans and signals a fun, full-circle moment for the actress.
New Indian Express
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
Sydney Sweeney and Michael Bay join hands for film adaptation of OutRun video game franchise
After biopic, Sydney Sweeney is all set to produce the upcoming film adaptation of the OutRun video game franchise, which Michael Bay is set to helm. The film, which will have a script by Jayson Rothwell, comes from Universal Studios. In the 1980s, Sega came up with the OutRun franchise, which originated from a series of successful arcade games worldwide. The game tasks players to avoid traffic and reach the destination before time's up. Not only did the game result in the creation of a new genre of driving games, but it also pioneered a new subgenre of electronic music, which was also called OutRun. Ever since, Sega has come up with many instalments of the video game. While plot details for the feature adaptation of OutRun are under wraps, Bay and Brad Fuller will also produce under their Platinum Dunes banner, which has a first-look deal with Universal. Toru Nakahara will produce for Sega, while Shuji Utsumi, President/COO of Sega Corporation, will oversee the project. From Universal's side, Executive Vice President of Production Development Matt Reilly and Senior Vice President of Production Development Ryan Jones will oversee the production. This is not Universal's first video game-to-film adaptation. OutRun comes as a third after their adaptations of and , both of which were commercially successful. The sequel to the latter, , is scheduled to release in theatres in December. Last seen in Ron Howard's , Sweeney currently has , The Housemaid and the Christy Martin biopic in the pipeline. Bay last helmed We Are Storror , a 2025 American documentary film about Storror, a group of parkour and freerunning athletes. The film had its premiere at the 2025 South by Southwest Film & TV Festival on March 8. He recently produced Christopher Landon's Drop , alongside Jason Blum, Brad Fuller, Cameron Fuller, and Sam Lerner.
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Julia Fox is everywhere. She may be ‘running on fumes,' but she doesn't want to sacrifice a single moment.
AUSTIN, Texas — Just as Charli XCX sang in her Grammy-nominated song '360,' Julia Fox is everywhere — including the South by Southwest Film & TV Festival. 'I've been running on fumes for like three years, 1,000%. That comes with having a small child and not wanting to sacrifice,' she told Yahoo Entertainment backstage at the premiere of her latest film, Idiotka. 'I don't want to look at my child and be resentful or something. So if that means I just have to work harder, then that's what I'm gonna have to do.' 'I just take him everywhere with me. We'll see how he feels about it in a couple years,' she added. Her son, who is 4, wasn't present for the interview — but he was on her mind as she promoted her new family-centric movie. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. Since Uncut Gems launched her to stardom in 2019, she's appeared in several movies, TV shows and music videos. Beyond her onscreen credits, Fox has become part of the cultural zeitgeist by embracing high fashion and radical honesty. Idiotka, which premiered March 12 at SXSW, blends together much of what she's best known for. The film follows a scrappy fashion designer named Margarita (Anna Baryshnikov), who lives with her family in a Russian immigrant community in L.A. as she competes in a reality competition show. Fox plays one of the show's judges. She said it was fun to see how 'art imitates life.' She hosted her own reality competition show, OMG Fashun, in 2024. 'I thought it would be so fun to be able to revisit it through a different lens,' she said. Fox's persona is a perfect match for the film, which is all about what female artists have to do to prove themselves to the world. She and Baryshnikov are two of the movie's executive producers. 'Just being a New York girly, you're naturally a producer. You just make shit happen,' Fox said. 'You know how to get from point A to point B, you know who to call. I've got a person for everything. … it felt like I've been producing my whole life.' Nastasya Popov, who wrote and directed Idiotka, impressed Fox with her persistence. Popov showed up to a book signing for Fox's memoir, Down the Drain, in 2023, and explained that she had written the part with the star in mind. Fox said yes before she even read the script. '[In the movie I say] a lot of the same stuff I would say on my show, which I thought was funny,' she said. 'But it's just what came naturally from having watched so many of these types of shows like Project Runway, America's Next Top Model, [and] RuPaul's Drag Race … so I just put that hat on and ran with it.' Popov told Yahoo Entertainment that making the reality show a core part of the script was a late addition. She initially set out to write something about the paradox of being an artist and the child of immigrants, inspired by a period during which she moved back home with her family. As the daughter of Russian Jewish political exiles, she grew up being encouraged to 'suffer in silence' and 'grin and bear it through oppression.' Her experience as an American artist contrasted that teaching, though — she was encouraged to overshare and 'regurgitate my trauma for anyone who'd listen.' In Idiotka, Margarita faces that same challenge: Does she remain true to herself and her upbringing by embracing stoicism, or showcase her family's struggles, knowing it's part of who she has become? Baryshnikov's father, the legendary ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, was born in Latvia to a Russian family before he defected to Canada to pursue dance. Anna told Yahoo Entertainment that she is much more of an emotionally open book than her character. She's no stranger to Hollywood, having appeared in Manchester by the Sea and Love Lies Bleeding, but she was eager to take the reins as a lead actor for the first time. 'It's always an interesting balance when you know you're playing the cipher for the director themselves,' Baryshnikov said. She watched Popov's family carefully to develop the character, drawing inspiration from 'a balance of sheer, unbridled passion and stoicism and anxiety.' Baryshnikov cherished the days on set when the cast that played Margarita's family got together — particularly Galina Jovovich, who was based on Popov's grandmother. 'I didn't know my paternal grandmother, but she was a huge champion of the arts and she's who got my dad to start dancing,' Baryshnikov said. 'I've always had this idealized version of who that grandmother might have been in my life, and meeting Galina and having her be the most fabulous, sassy incredible actress — I got to live out what the relationship would have been like, so the scenes with her were really special.' Jovovich had a few scene-stealing moments, for which the whole cast would huddle around the monitor and cheer her on. Rounding out the cast of the fictional reality show within the movie is a slew of internet darlings — rapper Saweetie and comedian Benito Skinner play the other two judges in addition to Fox, and actor/podcaster Owen Thiele plays the show's host. Popov was a fan of all three of them and delivered scripts to them through friends and friends of friends. She might have been as scrappy as her main character when it came to bringing the film together, but Baryshnikov said Popov's refusal to approach the film from a 'scarcity mindset' while still keeping things collaborative and letting 'the best idea win' gave her faith that the project would become something amazing. 'She wasn't going to let her creative ideas get run over just so she could get her film made,' Baryshnikov said. 'She was going to make the film she wanted.'
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Julia Fox is everywhere. She's may be ‘running on fumes,' but she doesn't want to sacrifice a single moment.
AUSTIN, Texas — Just as Charli XCX sang in her Grammy-nominated song '360,' Julia Fox is everywhere — including the South by Southwest Film & TV Festival. 'I've been running on fumes for like three years, 1,000%. That comes with having a small child and not wanting to sacrifice,' she told Yahoo Entertainment backstage at the premiere of her latest film, Idiotka. 'I don't want to look at my child and be resentful or something. So if that means I just have to work harder, then that's what I'm gonna have to do.' 'I just take him everywhere with me. We'll see how he feels about it in a couple years,' she added. Her son, who is 4, wasn't present for the interview — but he was on her mind as she promoted her new family-centric movie. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. Since Uncut Gems launched her to stardom in 2019, she's appeared in several movies, TV shows and music videos. Beyond her onscreen credits, Fox has become part of the cultural zeitgeist by embracing high fashion and radical honesty. Idiotka, which premiered March 12 at SXSW, blends together much of what she's best known for. The film follows a scrappy fashion designer named Margarita (Anna Baryshnikov), who lives with her family in a Russian immigrant community in L.A. as she competes in a reality competition show. Fox plays one of the show's judges. She said it was fun to see how 'art imitates life.' She hosted her own reality competition show, OMG Fashun, in 2024. 'I thought it would be so fun to be able to revisit it through a different lens,' she said. Fox's persona is a perfect match for the film, which is all about what female artists have to do to prove themselves to the world. She and Baryshnikov are two of the movie's executive producers. 'Just being a New York girly, you're naturally a producer. You just make shit happen,' Fox said. 'You know how to get from point A to point B, you know who to call. I've got a person for everything. … it felt like I've been producing my whole life.' Nastasya Popov, who wrote and directed Idiotka, impressed Fox with her persistence. Popov showed up to a book signing for Fox's memoir, Down the Drain, in 2023, and explained that she had written the part with the star in mind. Fox said yes before she even read the script. '[In the movie I say] a lot of the same stuff I would say on my show, which I thought was funny,' she said. 'But it's just what came naturally from having watched so many of these types of shows like Project Runway, America's Next Top Model, [and] RuPaul's Drag Race … so I just put that hat on and ran with it.' Popov told Yahoo Entertainment that making the reality show a core part of the script was a late addition. She initially set out to write something about the paradox of being an artist and the child of immigrants, inspired by a period during which she moved back home with her family. As the daughter of Russian Jewish political exiles, she grew up being encouraged to 'suffer in silence' and 'grin and bear it through oppression.' Her experience as an American artist contrasted that teaching, though — she was encouraged to overshare and 'regurgitate my trauma for anyone who'd listen.' In Idiotka, Margarita faces that same challenge: Does she remain true to herself and her upbringing by embracing stoicism, or showcase her family's struggles, knowing it's part of who she has become? Baryshnikov's father, the legendary ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, was born in Latvia to a Russian family before he defected to Canada to pursue dance. Anna told Yahoo Entertainment that she is much more of an emotionally open book than her character. She's no stranger to Hollywood, having appeared in Manchester by the Sea and Love Lies Bleeding, but she was eager to take the reins as a lead actor for the first time. 'It's always an interesting balance when you know you're playing the cipher for the director themselves,' Baryshnikov said. She watched Popov's family carefully to develop the character, drawing inspiration from 'a balance of sheer, unbridled passion and stoicism and anxiety.' Baryshnikov cherished the days on set when the cast that played Margarita's family got together — particularly Galina Jovovich, who was based on Popov's grandmother. 'I didn't know my paternal grandmother, but she was a huge champion of the arts and she's who got my dad to start dancing,' Baryshnikov said. 'I've always had this idealized version of who that grandmother might have been in my life, and meeting Galina and having her be the most fabulous, sassy incredible actress — I got to live out what the relationship would have been like, so the scenes with her were really special.' Jovovich had a few scene-stealing moments, for which the whole cast would huddle around the monitor and cheer her on. Rounding out the cast of the fictional reality show within the movie is a slew of internet darlings — rapper Saweetie and comedian Benito Skinner play the other two judges in addition to Fox, and actor/podcaster Owen Thiele plays the show's host. Popov was a fan of all three of them and delivered scripts to them through friends and friends of friends. She might have been as scrappy as her main character when it came to bringing the film together, but Baryshnikov said Popov's refusal to approach the film from a 'scarcity mindset' while still keeping things collaborative and letting 'the best idea win' gave her faith that the project would become something amazing. 'She wasn't going to let her creative ideas get run over just so she could get her film made,' Baryshnikov said. 'She was going to make the film she wanted.'
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- Yahoo
High-profile hostage negotiations often grab headlines, but the arduous process of setting hostage Americans free has been kept secret — until now
We independently evaluate the products we review. When you buy via links on our site, we may receive compensation. Read more about how we vet products and deals. Take No Prisoners, a documentary that premiered at the 2025 South by Southwest Film & TV Festival, follows the Salvadoran American family of Eyvin Hernandez in Los Angeles as they fight to free him from a notoriously brutal prison in Venezuela where he was wrongfully held hostage after going on vacation. It spotlights the work of Roger Carstens, who worked as a special presidential envoy for hostage affairs in the United States from 2020 to 2025. He spearheaded Hernandez's case and by allowing a crew to follow him throughout the process, gave audiences a glimpse at the complex and clandestine negotiations that must occur to set hostages free. Directors Adam Ciralsky and Subrata De spoke with Yahoo Entertainment about the film. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. How did you uncover this story and decide that it was a good subject for a documentary? Ciralsky: It started with a rooftop conversation with Roger Carstens in August 2022. He mentioned in passing that 25% of his workload as a special presidential envoy for hostage affairs involved people in Venezuela. I thought, 'That's unusual, tell me more!' Long story short, a month or so later, I end up on the tarmac down in San Antonio when two planes came in carrying seven people — five Citgo executives, plus Osman Khan and Matthew Heath. Seven people walked off an airplane, and it was an unbelievably emotional reunion that was very difficult to capture on an iPhone. I was crying and everyone was crying. I've never been hit with seven families reuniting like that. But that joy very quickly turned into something else when we realized Eyvin Hernandez had been left behind. He's an L.A. County public defender who our government left in the House of Dreams, this hellhole prison in South America. De: Throughout our collaborative relationship, which has spanned over 20 years, the stories of hostages have haunted us. In every historical moment — every story in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Venezuela — we've seen it as a brutal, geopolitical kind of swordplay with human lives. It was really important for us that it was more than just a talking point, for people to understand the true cost of it. We all know the headlines about high-profile hostages, but there are always countless others. Who are those families who don't have the same resources to get that time and attention? Ciralsky: We knew that the family got a call from the U.S. government saying, 'Your loved one, Eyvin, is not coming home,' and it was for a very bureaucratic reason. He wasn't technically designated as wrongfully detained. When someone is wrongfully detained, it's like a bomb goes off in the family. De: You can't really live a life. There are a lot of Hollywood versions of this, but the reality is far more stark and brutal. Ciralsky: By having cameras present, I think we saw two things: One was the incredible faith that this family has that somehow, some way, Roger was going to find a way to get Eyvin out. We had no idea how long this would take, how much it would cost and where we would have to go. I went to seven countries and we filmed in three of them. The other thing is that Eyvin's family from Compton, whose interactions with the federal government had been minimal at best like most people, goes from having no political power — no juice — and they transform into this incredibly powerful lobbying shop. It's an amazing thing for someone like Pedro, Eyvin's father, who was not born in this country and has limited education, to be invited to the White House to make his case and it works. I was struck by the opening of the documentary, which states that dozens of Americans are currently being held hostage and the methods used to effect their release have been shrouded in secrecy until now. Why do you think that is? De: The government and all the people at the heart of this will tell you it's because the risk is so high because it involves a human right. I think they say, 'There's just too much back and forth.' But once you take a peek at the actual process, you realize that despite all of the heart that goes into it, there is also a lot of bureaucracy. Like any institutional thing where different organizations are meant to cooperate, there can be roadblocks to that. And nobody wants that to be public, right? But families talk about that a lot. Out of respect for the process and because the end goal is to get a family member out, everybody just kind of goes with it. Also, if you look at what happens when hostages get released, you are often trading really bad people for really good people. That's a hard thing to see, but that's the reality of it. Ciralsky: The countries that take Americans hostage are not our allies. They're our worst, most fraught adversaries. It's a really bitter pill to swallow that we have to move to their beat and make deals, whether it's the 'Narco nephews' and Alex Saab [traded for the seven hostages freed from] Venezuela or Victor Boot for Brittany Griner in Russia. The government likes to keep this top secret because it's an asymmetric weapon. Why do you think Roger — and the U.S. government — spend so much time dealing with hostages in Venezuela, specifically? Ciralsky: At the time we were filming, you have to look at the results that a leader like Nicolás Maduro has had in detaining U.S. citizens. He was able to get attention from the U.S. government and backchannel conversations about some things that were personally important, and some high-profile convicted criminals held in the U.S. De: Venezuela is a strategic adversary, but it's not at the top of the list — North Korea, Iran, Russia and China come first. But by taking Americans captive, this is their way of ringing our bell. They get our attention. Ciralsky: Some actions by our government led their government to take Americans. The detainment of Alec Saab was on their minds as a motivator to take Americans. It's a very medieval practice that continues. Hostage-taking is a biblical plague that continues to this moment. I know you didn't know how the film would end — that Eyvin would be reunited with his family — when you started filming. Would you have kept following the story until he was back home? De: When it began, we knew that we were going to follow Roger's work, and then we became committed to Eyvin's family. That carried us through. Take No Prisoners is about both the promise and the peril of documentary filmmaking. Ciralsky: It promises you can have a hell of an ending, which we got, but I'll tell you — there was a lot of peril. There was a six-month period where it was not only ugly, it was unsafe, and our relationship as a country with Venezuela was just cratering. It's like the floor opened up and there was another dungeon. We had nothing between June 2023 and December 2023 when we heard that a deal was in the works. I read that Roger Carstens is no longer working as a special envoy since President Trump took office. What's he doing now? De: He's an amazing American patriot and public servant and he will continue to be that. But not having him on the case anymore is part of why this story is so important. He brought a lot of people home. Ciralsky: This is the hostage enterprise — victory knows a thousand fathers and failure's an orphan. Roger felt that every day. He would go home every night and all he'd think about were the people he was failing. Every time he'd get out someone like Brittney Griner, Evan Gershkovich or Paul Whelan, other people would take credit for it, but they weren't the ones at 2 a.m. taking calls from the family. This has become a sexy area of foreign policy where everyone seems to run for the soccer ball. There's a scene where he's in their living room — what other area of government is there an official who's coming to your house to cry with you, drink with you, eat with you and plan with you? Roger took that on. You could see him, over the course of this film, aging. premiered on March 8 at South by Southwest.
