Updated every Friday 12:00 PM
February 27 - March 5

APPLE TV
Apple TV unveiled a first look at "Star City," the new, highly anticipated drama from award-winning creators Ben Nedivi, Matt Wolpert and Ronald D. Moore, which expands the world of "For All Mankind." The thrilling, eight-episode series will debut globally on Apple TV with two episodes on Friday, May 29, followed by one new episode every Friday through July 10...

In December 2021, Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures delivered the MCU's most successful solo movie ever with the theatrical release of Spider-Man: No Way Home. Earning excellent reviews from critics and fans behind Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire, the third film in Holland's run as Peter Parker broke through the COVID-19 pandemic-induced box office barriers and became one of the biggest hits in history. Grossing over $1.9 billion at the global box office (one of eight movies to cross the $1 billion mark since 2020), it now ranks as the MCU's third-highest-grossing film and sits in eighth place on the list of the highest-grossing movies in history. Spider-Man films have been almost guaranteed financial hits for the last two decades, and the MCU's films are no exception, as Tom Holland's trilogy has grossed just under $4 billion overall. This trend is only expected to continue this year, as Spider-Man: Brand New Day is already building major hype with Destin Daniel Cretton in the director's chair and countless major villains set to give the web-slinger all he can handle...

Producer Jordan Goldnadel has launched AiSpasia Studios, an AI animation firm based out of New York. AiSpasia is being positioned as "pioneering the ethical and artist-driven use of artificial intelligence in animation." Goldnadel's plan is to explore how AI tools can "creative possibilities while protecting artistic authorship, labor integrity, and human storytelling," he said. He wants to use those tools "responsibly" and will "compensate human collaborators fairly. The future of animation doesn't belong to machines; it belongs to the artists who learn how to wield them," said Goldnadel. "AiSpasia exists to make sure AI strengthens creative independence rather than undermines it. AiSpasia's first project is Léon in New York, which Goldnadel is billing as "among the first fully AI-animated series, which quietly debuted on YouTube and currently has nearly one million views...

Films Not Made, a new podcast that invites Hollywood creatives to dust off dead pitches with the help of generative AI. Launching on March 3, the show will host guests including Shrek 2 director Conrad Vernon, Sideways writer Rex Pickett, and Dear White People producer Effie Brown. They will be invited to revisit the ones that got away, the projects that painfully eluded their grasp. Weider, a sound specialist who has worked on Netflix's Surviving Jeffrey Epstein and Hulu's I Am Greta, will run their pitch materials, scripts, and supporting documents (think email conversations with studio executives) through Sora 2 and other AI models, with the results being picked apart during the podcast. In an early episode, Weider and Hobby ponder Poodle Power, the true story of a man who raced poodles in Alaska's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. The project went through several iterations over the course of a decade, including a live-action rescue helicopter drama, but ultimately failed to cross the finish line. Films Not Made's AI workflow reimagines Poodle Power as a "prototype" neo-2D animation. The podcast conversation culminates in a "Netlix" trailer that's "so bad," they all fall about laughing....

This 51st edition of the Cesar Awards had a definite Hollywood flavor with Richard Linklater winning best director for "Nouvelle Vague," a love letter to the French cinematic movement known as the New Wave. The film, which was acquired by Netflix at Cannes where it world premiered, led the race with 10 nominations and won best director, cinematography for David Chambille, costume for Pascaline Chavanne and editing for Catherine Schwartz. France's equivalent to the Oscars and BAFTA's, The Cesar Awards took place this evening at the Olympia theater in Paris. Paul Thomas Anderson's "Once Battle After Another" won the Cesar Award for best international feature, beating Joachim Trier's "Sentimental Value," Oliver Laxe's "Sirat," Kleber Mendonça Filho's "The Secret Agent" and Guan Hu's "Black Dog."Succeeding Julia Roberts, Jim Carrey received this year's honorary Cesar award and delivered an emotional speech entirely in French, after being introduced by Michel Gondry, who directed him in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" 22 years ago....

Christian Duguay is confirmed to direct a movie titled Lady Liberty, a historical drama detailing the creation of the world-famous Statue of Liberty. The producers of the French comedy The Intouchables (2011) and 2021's Oscar-winning CODA will bring this picture to life, telling the statue's origin story and "tracing the artistic audacity of Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the political vision of Édouard de Laboulaye, and the engineering ingenuity of Gustave Eiffel." Set in the 19th century, the film's story will center on Bartholdi and Laboulaye as they embrace the task of offering the American people a massive statue honoring their fight for liberty and democracy. The unlikely friendship evolves into something special in the face of detractors, financial obstacles, and technical challenges as the pair has to overcome countless obstacles to get the statue built...