Updated every Friday 12:00 PM
August 2 - August 8

APPLE TV
Apple TV+ shared a first look at “Before,” an atmospheric, character-driven psychological thriller starring multi-award-winning actor, comedian and filmmaker Billy Crystal. The 10-episode series is executive produced by Crystal, Academy Award winner Eric Roth and creator Sarah Thorp, and will premiere globally on Apple TV+ on Friday, October 25, with the first two episodes, followed by new episodes every Friday through December 20...

“Piece by Piece,” Pharrell Williams‘ animated Lego biopic, will close this year’s BFI London Film Festival. Directed by Oscar-winning documentarian Morgan Neville (“20 Feet From Stardom”), the film — getting its U.K. debut in London after world premiering at Toronto Film Festival — explores the life and work of Williams, who decided that his story should be told via Lego (apparently as a metaphor for the creative way in which he sees the world). Alongside Williams, the Focus Features film stars Jay-Z, Missy Elliot, Gwen Stefani, Busta Rhymes and Snoop Dogg, all rendered in Lego, and chronicles Williams’ life from humble beginnings in Virginia Beach to his early career as a producer in the Neptunes and performer in N.E.R.D. to becoming one of the most prolific and successful artists working today...

From Hundreds of Beavers to In a Violent Nature and Sasquatch Sunset, all have chosen to limit or refrain from dialogue to bring audiences closer to those that cannot speak for themselves. As the old adage goes “nature is red in tooth and claw” but this year’s environmental cinema focuses on a bloodier violence which is far from inevitable. The black and white slapstick comedy Hundreds of Beavers, the gory slasher In a Violent Nature and cryptid movie Sasquatch Sunset all chose to limit or entirely refrain from dialogue in order to offer strange odes to the environment which highlight humanity’s lasting impact on the natural world. Opting for physicality over dialogue, these three films follow in the footsteps of nonverbal nature documentaries such as Victor Kossakovsky’s Gunda and Laurent Charbonnier and Michel Seydoux’s Heart of An Oak. These documentaries offer much more than simple meditative depictions of wildlife....

“I Can See Your Voice,” the mystery music show which has been a hit format for South Korea’s Cj Enm, will strike a new chord with its 30th local adaptation set for Singapore. The show in which guests have to identify whether the contestants are genuinely talented singers or bad singers based solely on lip-syncing and body language, is set to be adapted by public broadcaster Mediacorp. The aim is to eliminate the poor singers while identifying the talented ones to emerge as the winner. It has previously been given local editions in countries including the U.S., the U.K, Germany, France, Thailand and the Philippines...

Through the Lens Entertainment, the East-West film studio that made a splash at Cannes last year, has struck a film development and production deal with iconic horror magazine Fangoria. For Fangoria, the agreement marks a return to filmmaking after a prolonged period of corporate turbulence. The first three manga titles that will be co-developed as films are all from the legendary Japanese horror mangaka or manga author and artist Ito Junji: “Bloodsucking Darkness” and “The Mystery of the Haunted House Part 1” and “Part 2.”. The company’s other projects include “The Incident Report” with Britt Lower (“Severance”) directed by Naomi Jaye and executive produced by Charlie Kaufman; “Lefthanded Girl,” a Taiwanese feature film written directed by Shih Ching Shou (“Tangerine”) and produced by Sean Baker (“The Florida Project”), that is now in post-production; and “Skysong,” a south-Asian fairytale developed as a comic book and feature film with Freida Pinto (“Slumdog Millionaire”) and her company Freebird Films...

Old West historian Michael Grauer rates the accuracy of The Harder They Fall. One of the historian's main qualms with the movie was seeing the U.S. Army "get involved in legal disputes," something they rarely got involved with. This created issues with the scene's portrayal of the "transport of prisoners." Overall, he characterized The Harder They Fall as a "complete fantasy" and gave it a 3 out of 10 accuracy rating. He believes The Cowboys is an accurate Wild West movie and his favorite. The 1972 Western film follows a grizzled veteran rancher who recruits a group of inexperienced schoolboys as cowhands to get his cattle herd to market on time. John Wayne leads the cast alongside Roscoe Lee Browne, Bruce Dern, Colleen Dewhurst...