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August 7 - August 13

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Apple Original Films unveiled at San Diego Comic-Con the trailer for the upcoming action feature "Matchbox The Movie" starring John Cena, premiering globally on Apple TV on Friday, October 9. Inspired by the iconic Mattel toys, "Matchbox The Movie" is an action-packed, globe-trotting adventure about a group of friends since childhood who have their lives upended when undercover CIA agent Sean, their long-absent former leader, returns to their small town and unwittingly gets them embroiled in a frantic international pursuit to save the world...

Speaking to Chinese podcaster and political philosophy lecturer Zhong Shu in Beijing, which first appeared on China's Bilibili video platform, the British filmmaker has something of a hard break from the usual interviews he's done on The Odyssey's globe-spanning press tour. There were no games, no soft-ball or rushed questions about his favorite moments from the production or anecdotes about the actors, instead Zhong's interview was one of the rare ones where the filmmaker was probed about his personal philosophy and worldview and how that informed the making of The Odyssey. Zhong then moved on to the concept of "atonement" in Nolan's film, saying that such a concept doesn't exist in Ancient Greek culture, or language, or in Homer's poem. She asked directly whether the filmmaker had "Christianized The Odyssey" and further why atonement was so important in the film. "I wasn't too conscious of how I was approaching it philosophically other than I really honed in on the idea of what's termed 'xenia,' said Nolan. "In the film we call it Zeus's Law for simplicity, but it's that idea of mutual respect – that I treat you the way I want to be treated. And in their theology it's because you might be a god in disguise. I really drilled down on that, and I started to realize that for me a lot of what's interesting about the interaction of history and mythology is this idea of the 'sea peoples', the idea of the people from the sea who were thought to have precipitated the Bronze Age collapse. It's one of the great mysteries of history: who were they? But the idea that really a violation of xenia, a violation of Zeus' Law — which is what the suitors are doing in the palace — that really is the [breaking] of Zeus' Law that is causing this difficulty and this damage. "I think the idea of atonement in a way is what we bring as viewers to the story," Nolan added. "I don't know whether there really is atonement in the film, or whether we just feel that catharsis or that's the process we're seeing in the final meeting that we've waited for between Odysseus and Penelope. But I think in a way we maybe bringing our more modern sensibility to that. Insofar as [atonement is] there, it's not a deliberate attempt to Christianize it, but it's an outgrowth or it's a natural conclusion of burrowing in on this philosophical idea of what happens when you break Zeus' Law."...

In 1988, Abdul Ahad Momand became the first, and only, Afghan cosmonaut in space and made Pashto the fourth language ever spoken beyond Earth. And his space adventure became a fleeting moment of hope just as Afghanistan descended into civil war, forcing millions of his countrymen and countrywomen into exile. The memory of the space voyage has since been overshadowed by narratives of conflict, war and diaspora. London-based Afghan filmmaker and actor Elham Ehsas (There Will Come Soft Rains, Yellow, Our Kind of Love) is now bringing the world a cinematic reminder of the space adventure in the context of his country's history in the short film Forgotten Spaceman, which will world premiere on Aug. 9 in the Pardi di Domani – Concorso Internazionale short and medium-length selection of the 79th edition of the Locarno Film Festival...

BMW owners are taking to social media to express outrage that the automaker suddenly started pushing ads for Spider-Man: Brand New Day onto their dashboards. The ads began appearing last week on newer-model vehicles and some drivers who forked up to $160,000 for a luxury car or SUV aren't very happy about being spammed when they start their cars. A banner touting the film first appears when the car is started, though owners have to click on the ad to see the full video. Still, one owner claimed BMW has been pushing increasingly intrusive videos onto its dashboard space. Several commenters compared the Brand New Day ad to Apple's famously backfired 2014 stunt of putting a U2 album into the iTunes libraries of more than half a billion customers...

It has been nearly five years since Daniel Craig ordered his final martini in No Time to Die, and the search for the next James Bond has somehow produced more rumors than actual information. Every British actor under 40 has seemingly been fitted for a tuxedo by the internet, but we may finally know when the real answers are coming. Stop the presses, because we finally have a timeline for when we should expect Bond 26 to be getting underway. Producer Amy Pascal told Deadline that an announcement about the next 007 could arrive by the end of the 2026 movie calendar. When asked whether that time frame sounded realistic, Pascal called it "a good bet," explaining: I would say the end of the year is a good bet. We are being really, really methodical. Having worked with Barbara Broccoli at the studio, I mean, Daniel Craig is a hard act to follow. And it's got to be something really different that is a stirring and exciting and different...

It's no secret that short-form videos have been a layman's doorway into moviemaking in the AI era, with companies luring users with the notion of bringing their imaginations to life in ways unfathomable before the advent of generators. Google knows this as well, and the short-film exhibition at Manhattan's arthouse Metrograph theater seems as designed to present the films and the technology as it does to showcase the company's eagerness for the film industry to embrace AI's potential, moves further reflected in its DeepMind research partnership with A24 and its work with filmmakers including Darren Aronofsky and Doug Liman. The sessions' screening venue moved from Tribeca's Roxy Cinema to the much bigger Metrograph in the Lower East Side, an ode to the cinephile demographic that reveres the theater. That includes hiring a filmmaker-in-residence, Henry Daubrez, who has worked with each cohort to shepherd their ideas from concept to generated reality. Daubrez says the AI era means one doesn't need a professionally creative background to tell stories, as those from other industries have found a pathway to tell stories that would've otherwise lain dormant in their minds...

Morgan Freeman recently told The New York Times that he's okay signing on for a movie with a mediocre script as long as the pay is good enough. "If somebody offers you a job, it's very nice if they're offering you also an exciting script, but in reality, two or three things come into play," Freeman explained. "What are they going to pay you? If they're going to pay you enough, then you overlook some of the glitches in the script that happen to be there." "Sometimes you can mention things that are in the script that don't quite work out for you and by and large, that gets worked out," the Oscar winner added on a more hopeful note...