Updated every Friday 12:00 PM
Augusr 1 - August 7

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Apple TV+ debuted the trailer for the highly anticipated eight-part song battle series “KPOPPED,” starring PSY, the international chart-topper who helped bring K-pop to the world with his global sensation “Gangnam Style,” and three-time Grammy Award-winning superstar and executive producer Megan Thee Stallion. All episodes are set to debut globally on Friday, August 29 on Apple TV+...

Cinema United and the Cinema Foundation are teaming up to bring two-for-one concessions and additional discounts to movie theaters around the country on Friday, Aug. 22. It is part of an inaugural event called “Date Night @ The Movies,” sponsored by Fandango. On that Friday, thousands of participating theaters will offer special two-for-one deals on popcorn, candy, drinks and even movie promotions. The event is meant to get people back into the theaters, ideally going as couples or duos. Mike Bowers, chair of the Cinema Foundation explains, “‘Date Night @ the Movies’ is a celebration of the long-lasting memories we create and share at the cinema. This one-night only event is all about enjoying the big screen with someone special, whether it’s your partner, best friend, new friend, family member or movie-loving plus one.”...

George Lucas entered San Diego Convention Center’s cavernous Hall H and stepped into history, as the legendary creator of Star Wars made his first-ever appearance at Comic-Con, the popular arts convention that has partially been built off his stories and creations. He, along with museum board member and fellow art collector del Toro and Chiang, were there to not only give a first look at the museum, but also make a case for the importance and validity of narrative art, which includes comic book art, as a vital form of expression. “This is a temple to the people’s art,” Lucas said, speaking about the idea for his museum. His first words in Hall H were about how he began acquiring art while in college, but all he could afford was comic book art. With success, he expanded his art collection to now over 40,000 pieces. “What is important to me, what is magical, is not a man and his collection, it’s a lineage of images,” explained del Toro. “We are in a critical moment in which one thing they like to disappear is the past.” The idea of narrative art being a driver of community and common belief systems was one theme Lucas, in sometimes elliptical ways, kept repeating and to which he kept returning. Del Toro also got into the heady and philosophical, denoting differences between art for myth-building purposes and art for propaganda purposes “Myth belongs to all of us, propaganda belongs to a very small group,” he said. “Myth unites us, propaganda divides us.” The museum, which has had its opening pushed back several times, is slated to open in 2026.  ...

TA screen-used Stormtrooper helmet from Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope was sold for $256,000 at an auction held Sunday at Comic-Con in San Diego. The helmet was previously exhibited at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, last year as part of an exhibition titled “Defending America and the Galaxy: Star Wars and SDI.” According to Julien’s Auctions and Turner Classic Movies, which organized the event, this original stunt helmet was used in the production and is believed to be featured in scenes on Tatooine as a “Sandtrooper” helmet. It’s said to be one of only six stunt helmets known to have survived and are accounted for in private collections. The auction was part of “Echoes From the Galaxy, A Star Wars Memorabilia Exhibit + Auction,” a two-week event presented at Comic-Con Museum that was touted as having “sold the world’s largest collection of Star Wars artifacts from renowned collectors, fans and insiders of the epic franchise.” ..

I’m Not Your Negro, The Invisible War, Minding the Gap, The Mole Agent, Abacus: Small Enough to Jail: These are just a sampling of the iconic films that ITVS has co-produced with independent filmmakers for decades, more than 900 films over the last 35 years. But the future of our public-private partnership is at risk with the short-sighted and destructive July 18 vote to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) by Congress. ITVS, which is funded by CPB, will continue to receive federal funding until Sept. 30, 2025 and then nearly $9 million annually will no longer go to independent documentary filmmakers. It’s perhaps ironic that ITVS was founded in 1989 through a visionary and bipartisan act of Congress that instructed CPB to fund an independent television service that would serve the American public with innovative and diverse content made by independent producers. Since then, ITVS’ mission — done in partnership with PBS, series like American Masters and POV, and the National Multicultural Alliance — has held firm to help ensure that every American’s story, particularly those that are underrepresented, is seen through public media. And today, PBS is the foremost distributor of independent documentary, featuring stories and storytellers that don’t meet the interests or priorities of commercial media like the big studios and streamers...