“I’m Still Here” marks the first feature film by Salles since 2012’s “On the Road,” though he directed shorts and a documentary about Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhang-ke. As a child Salles knew the Paiva family, though the film is not a memoir from his perspective.

Instead, it’s adapted from an autobiography by Marcelo Rubens Paiva, the son in the family, and reorients the story around matriarch Eunice. She’s played in a fiercely concentrated, Gena Rowlands-caliber performance, by Fernanda Torres – and in a late-film cameo by Torres’s mother Fernanda Montenegro, 95, an Oscar nominee for Salles’s “Central Station.”

That beloved movie was also the last Brazilian film nominated for the Best International Film Oscar. “I’m Still Here,” which will be released by Sony Pictures Classics in January, is the country’s submission this year.

The first 30 minutes of the movie take place in the family’s home near the beach. We see kids playing in the street. One of those boys, back then, was actually you, right?
That’s correct.  I lived in the same neighborhood. Meeting the five kids and being invited to that house opened up a world of new possibilities to me. Suddenly I was in an environment where different groups were freely discussing politics and listening to music that was forbidden at the time. The windows were open and there was no key in the door, which was so rare given the political situation of the country. And we adolescents were allowed to listen to conversations that I never accessed in my own house.

The film does not obsess over politics. Its larger point is that Rubens’ abduction and murder was a crime, regardless of what he believed. 
I think it is political, in essence, but the political stems from the humanity of the characters. It’s an effective way of being political, because by embracing Eunice’s point of view, we go through the institutional channels with her. She became a lawyer who was extremely effective in eroding the dictatorship and ensuring the re-democratization of Brazil. But that came out of her quiet inner strength. And her understatement, politically, was very destabilizing.

Eunice is played by Fernanda Torres. She has said that if her character cried in the film, you would edit it out.
Well, when people are struggling with loss, the first thing they do is try to retain the emotion. And in real life, Eunice never allowed herself to be seen as a victim. Whenever the family would be photographed, she would ask the kids to smile. So to portray this woman in full honesty, we had to embrace her perception of life.

Fernanda’s goal was so difficult: To portray an emotion that would be steaming and bubbling inside her, without allowing it to be expressed in any melodramatic manner. And for her as an actress, it was like walking on a tightrope in between buildings. Because if she diminished the information too much, then the audience doesn’t see what the character is truly enduring. But if she overdid it, then the film would be betraying the very essence of her character. Somehow, incredibly, she did it. There are very few who could hit that balance of emotion.

The film has been screened at many festivals since winning a prize at Venice in September. What has been the reaction of audiences so far?
It’s so interesting how many different cultures react similarly to the story. Something happened after a screening in New York, when I was approached by a tall, young man who told me that the film reminded him so much of his relationship with his father. His father was killed on September 11th. 

Oh, wow.
I was touched by talking to that man, because for him the film was a life affirmative story about how you can survive terrible loss. But also there’s the feeling of when someone disappears, which he can relate to, unfortunately. The person who was literally there is then all of a sudden not there anymore. And how painful that is, even beyond grief. Without the presence of the body, you don’t go through the same rituals.

I’m reminded of the Virgil quote at the 9/11 museum, now in the context of your movie: “No day shall erase you from the memory of time.”
Exactly. That’s an extraordinary quote and it applies so powerfully, not just to Rubens Paiva in our film, but to all the loved ones who have been lost and disappeared.

A version of this story first appeared in the SAG Preview/Documentaries/ International issue of TheWrap awards magazine. Read more from the SAG Preview/Documentaries/International issue here.

The post ‘I’m Still Here’ Director Walter Salles Says Quiet Inner Strength Can Knock Down Dictatorships appeared first on TheWrap.

Ahead of her upcoming episode on Thursday, “The Drew Barrymore Show” dropped a teaser with the actress behind Galinda/Glinda, where she was surprised with the iconic wand from the “The Wizard of Oz.”

“I have something that’s extremely exciting and special. It actually was owned by The Smithsonian and now it’s owned in private hands — but for the purposes of our sit-down, they loaned it to us,” Barrymore explained in Tuesday’s preview clip. “Bring out the original Glinda wand, please.”

“Are you serious right now? Thank you guys, it’s been fun,” Grande replied as she feigned an early exit with the prop. “How did you even pull this off? Oh my god, did you break in?”

“I have to give credit to everyone on this show, because literally we were so excited about you coming here, we were like, ‘OK, let’s get the wand, let’s get Nonna,'” Barrymore added. “That is the original wand from ‘Wizard of Oz.’”

Indeed, the starry silver wand was first seen held by actress Billie Burke in the 1939 film. But this isn’t the first time Grande has been in awe over a thrillifying set piece as of late.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Drew Barrymore Show (@thedrewbarrymoreshow)

As part of NBC and Peacock’s “Defying Gravity: The Curtain Rises on Wicked,” the “Popular” singer discussed with co-stars Cynthia Erivo and Jonathan Bailey just how important props and costumes were in bringing their musical film to life.

“I’m excited to attempt to get through airport security with this,” she joked while holding her pink iteration of the wand on the Universal set. “I don’t think I’ll be stopped. We have to take these home. It’s kind of emotional, I don’t want to let go of it.”

“We’re so lucky to have these physically grounding pieces,” Grande added of Elphaba’s broom. “When you put the costume on, when you put her shoes on, when you hold our things and wear our crowns, when we’re supported by such brilliant artists who designed these pieces — that just takes it to the next level.”

“Wicked – Part I” is now playing in theaters. “The Drew Barrymore Show” airs weekdays in syndication on CBS stations.

The post Ariana Grande Receives Glinda’s Original ‘Wizard of Oz’ Wand From Drew Barrymore: ‘Oh My God!’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

The institute’s 2024 GDI film study, titled “Charting Progress in Film Diversity,” examines children’s and family programming to “better understand the influence of media on young audiences who are most vulnerable to media effects.”

“Our goal is to drive industry change by providing creators with the data and insights they need to improve how gender, race, LGBTQIA+ identity, disability, body size and age are presented on screen,” the study reads.

The study was presented exclusively at TheWrap’s 2024 Power Women Summit in Los Angeles on Tuesday during a panel sponsored by the Geena Davis Institute. Featured speakers were Dr. Meredith Conroy, the institute’s VP of research and insights; Madeline Di Nonno, the institute’s president and CEO; Janine Jones-Clark, Universal Filmed Entertainment Group’s EVP of filmmaker and content strategies; and Ramsey Naito, Paramount and Nickelodeon Animation president. Ellie Austin, deputy editorial director of Most Powerful Women at Fortune, moderated.

Looking to films that were rated G, PG or PG-13, were made for $10 million or more, were English-language and were made for theatrical or streaming release, the study finds that LGBTQ+ characters accounted for 1.5% of film roles, disabled characters accounted for 2% and fat characters for 6.5%. Additionally, female characters make up 37.8% of screen roles and non-white characters make up 40.5%. The study additionally found characters that are 50 and older is an underrepresented group on screen, making up only 18.7%.

In regards to the study’s use of the word “fat,” the study clarified that it’s used as a value-neutral descriptor in order to differentiate from “obese” or “overweight,” as those terms are “rooted in medical practices that often reinforce stigma and bias against larger bodies,” nor is “fat” suggestive of being outside of some sort of “norm” or “average” (such as “plus size” or “bigger”).

Other key findings included that women are five times as likely as men to be objectified on screen and are three times as likely as men to be presented in sexually revealing clothing. Also, when it comes to the careers women have in film or TV, women are less likely to have an occupation, but are equally as likely as men to be a leader and equally as likely as men to work in business, blue collar professions, education, the arts and the government or royalty.

TheWrap’s Power Women Summit is the essential gathering of the most influential women across entertainment and media. The event aims to inspire and empower women across the landscape of their professional careers and personal lives. With the theme, “Aspire,” this year’s PWS provides one day of keynotes, panels, workshops and networking. For more information visit thewrap.com/pws. For all of TheWrap’s Power Women Summit 2024 coverage, click here.

The post LGBTQ+, Fat and Disabled Characters Combined Only Make Up 10% of Film Roles, Study Finds appeared first on TheWrap.

The refinancing included a $350 million Revolving Credit Facility that replaced the company’s existing revolving credit facility and matures on Dec. 1, 2029, as well as a $1.9 billion Term Loan B facility that matures on Dec. 1, 2031. Barclays, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Texas Capital served as arrangers and bookrunners for the loan.

The deal came after the most lucrative Thanksgiving box office weekend in industry history, with $426 million grossed between Wednesday and Sunday in North America. That is more than $100 million above the previous record of $315 million set on Thanksgiving weekend in 2018.

With a trio of films in Disney’s “Moana 2,” Universal’s “Wicked” and Paramount’s “Gladiator II” fueling the box office boom and films like Disney’s “Mufasa” and Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” set to keep the momentum going at Christmas, Regal and other theater chains are expecting box office grosses to keep improving in the months and years ahead.

“The overwhelmingly positive market reception for this transaction is a
signal of the momentum we are seeing in our business,” Regal Cineworld CEO Eduardo Acuna said in a statement. “In Q3, Regal Cineworld welcomed over
49 million guests to our theatres and generated total revenue of over $1
billion with record-high levels of spend per person on concessions.
With the refinancing transaction, we will save $60 million per year in
interest expense, which puts our successful restructuring squarely in the
past.”

The post Regal Cineworld Refinances Loan After Bankruptcy Restructuring Thanks to Thanksgiving Box Office appeared first on TheWrap.

Rasoulof’s new film is, like many of his previous projects, a complex thriller and piece of docu-fiction. It was filmed in secrecy earlier this year in and around Tehran. Under threat of another prison term, Rasoulof fled in exile to Germany, where post-production was completed. And now the film is Germany’s submission for the Best International Feature Film Oscar.

Winner of a special prize at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, “Sacred Fig” concerns a judge (Missagh Zareh) on the secretive revolutionary court, whose occupation puts him at odds with his daughters (Mahsa Rostami and Setareh Maleki), supporters of the Women, Life, Freedom movement. His wife (actress/activist Soheila Golestani) is divided in her loyalty, especially after the husband’s handgun, kept in a dresser drawer for protection, mysteriously disappears.

The movie, distributed by Neon, is playing in select theaters now. The conversation with Rasoulof (below) was interpreted by Dr. Sheida Dayani.

Your film comments on many big issues, but you’ve chosen the thriller/mystery genre to tell the story. How did you decide on that?

My ideas started with the family – with the husband, the wife, their two daughters. Usually, I start with the ideas and then lock in the characters, but here, I did the opposite. I locked in the characters of the family first. And I thought a lot about the mood of the characters and what each of them reveals to the audience. And that dictated the genre of the film.

There’s enormous tension in the film. There’s even a car chase on the highway. And so much of the plot revolves around a gun that has gone missing from the family’s apartment.  

Yeah, I got a bit of action and thriller aspects in there. My instincts for experimenting told me to do it.

We see social-media footage of protests and brutality in the streets of Tehran during the Women, Life, Freedom movement in 2022, which happens as your story unfolds. How important was the inclusion of these videos?

This is a complex issue because I was telling the story of a family that’s transforming based on the events that were happening outside, but I was making a clandestine film and I couldn’t shoot outdoors, so I needed the real-life footage. 

I also wanted to express how social media is so significant for the new generation to stay in touch with each other — and as a way to survive and breathe. At the same time, I was showing the difference between what social media captures and what the state TV shows people, which are total distortions of reality.

Actress Soheila Golestani, who plays the wife and mother, is also an activist. She still lives in Iran, is that right?

Yes, she does. She’s a very strong woman. She has been to prison before and she deliberately wants to stay in Iran to continue doing what she has been doing during the Women, Life, Freedom movement. I completely understand her because I also tried to stay in Iran. It took me seven years to make this decision to get out. It was as if I was reaching a cliff’s edge.

What does the International Feature Oscar selection mean to you?

The meaning of this choice is that we can see human stories beyond language and nationality. The entire post-production happened in Germany. I don’t have any Iranian ID cards; it’s been years since they took them away from me. But Germany gave me identification papers.

And if you had stayed in Iran, the film would never have been chosen. 

Of course not. I had never in my life thought about the Oscars because my entire career in cinema was in opposition to the Iranian government. And it’s the government that chooses what films go to the Oscars. They would never choose a film of mine or a film of (fellow detained director) Jafar Panahi. He could have received an Oscar for his film “Offside” in 2006, but they deprived him of that. And hopefully, independent filmmakers like us can have similar experiences in the future. 

And there is one part of this that is kind of funny, actually. After Germany picked the film as the Oscar selection, I believe the Iranian government stepped back a little. Because they realized that the more pressure they put on the film, the more it helps the film to go forward. That is the message this choice sends. 

A version of this story first appeared in the SAG Preview/Documentaries/ International issue of TheWrap awards magazine.

Read more from the SAG Preview/Documentaries/International issue here.

The post Iranian Director of ‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig’ Explains How He Landed His First Oscar Submission – By Fleeing to Germany appeared first on TheWrap.

The first two episodes of the latest live-action Lucasfilm series are now streaming on Disney+, and within those two episodes, there are some surprising connections to some beloved Disney theme park attractions.

In “Skeleton Crew,” we follow a group of youngsters – Ravi Cabot-Conyers as Wim, Ryan Kiera Armstrong as Fern, Kyriana Kratter as KB and Robert Timothy Smith as adorable alien Neel – as they discover a hidden spaceship and take off for parts unknown. They encounter a crusty old droid SM-33 (voiced by Nick Frost) and a rascally Force-user (Jude Law) as they attempt to get back home and uncover the hidden mystery of their suburban planet.

In the first episode, the kids go to school and their bus driver might look familiar. It’s an RX droid, the type of robot that was introduced in Star Tours, the Disney Parks attraction that debuted at Disneyland in 1987 and what was known as Disney-MGM Studios and Tokyo Disneyland (both in 1989). That attraction’s droid, RX-24, was played, warmly by Paul Reubens, who got to reprise his role when Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opened in 2019. By then Rex, as he’s known to the fans, found a new line of work – this time as a DJ in the Star Wars land’s cantina.

In the years since RX droids have been seen recently in “The Mandalorian” and “The Book of Boba Fett,” but chances are that if you rode the original attraction, every time one of those droids pops up, you get a kick of nostalgia. (“Skeleton Crew” effortless evokes cinema – and theme park attractions – of the bygone era of the 1980’s.)

There’s more! In episode two, the gang winds up at a rough-and-tumble waystation, populated by rogues and rapscallions. It’s basically a space port by way of the cantina from the original “Star Wars” – full of colorful and dangerous creatures and characters. At one point, the kids spot a positively magical creature – a fuzzy red alien with a long tail and butterfly wings.

If the creature rings any bells, it’s because the creature is the same species as Fuzzball, one of the main characters from “Captain EO,” a 3D movie that opened alongside the original Star Tours at Disneyland and EPCOT Center in 1986. Fuzzball is the cohort of Michael Jackson’s title character, a captain who is drawn to a dark planet run by a witchy Anjelica Huston. (He brings light to the dark planet via music and dance, obviously.)

“Captain EO” was, famously, co-written and overseen by George Lucas, who also shepherded the creation of Star Tours, with visual effects provided by Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic. But up until now they have been two separate universes. Now “Skeleton Crew” canonizes Fuzzball and his species as being part of the “Star Wars” galaxy. Does this mean Michael Jackson’s Captain EO also exists in the same space ports as Luke, Han and the gang? But more importantly, with only two of the eight episodes streaming, what other Disney Parks references will pop up?

The post ‘Skeleton Crew:’ How the New ‘Star Wars’ Show Connects to the Disney Parks appeared first on TheWrap.

First, though, June Squibb will have to invite you in, because the table is at the entrance to her kitchen, next to a formidable glassed-in bookcase that sports an impressive collection of carefully placed volumes dominated by mysteries and thrillers written by Scandinavian authors. It’s here, in this pleasantly kitschy midcentury complex, that Squibb first met with “Thelma” director Josh Margolin when he offered her the role of an elderly woman who is swindled by a phone scammer and sets out to get a little revenge.

It’s here where Margolin brought her costar Richard Roundtree over for lunch before the ’70s blaxploitation star (he was Shaft!) gave his final performance as a mild-mannered friend of Thelma’s. It’s here where she and Fred Hechinger, who plays her grandson, met for what was supposed to be a rehearsal but instead became a lively discussion that she said has never stopped.

And it’s where she first drove the scooter she uses in “Thelma,” with the stunt coordinator running alongside her, scared that she was going to kill herself.

“I could just sit here and they brought everybody to me,” said Squibb as she sat near a sliding glass door, on the other side of which an orange cat slept away the afternoon. (Her other cat, a gray and white one, was “probably hiding in the closet,” she said.) It was two days after her 95th birthday, but Squibb was sharp as a tack and in high spirits as her delightful performance in “Thelma”continued to stir up awards talk 10 months after it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. It’s her first leading role in a film career that didn’t begin until she was 61, a Broadway veteran but a film neophyte until Woody Allen cast her in “Alice” in 1990. 

In other words, June Squibb launched her film career at an age when most actresses were considered to have aged out of the business by an ageist and sexist industry. “I never felt that women of that age couldn’t get parts, because that was me — that’s who I was at the time,” she said with a shrug and a smile.

“People laugh and say, ‘Well, you broke the rule on that one.’ All I knew was that all at once in New York, we were having a big influx of filming. I knew theater people who were working on these films, and so I thought, I could be doing this.

“I went to my agent and said, ‘This is happening, and I think I should be doing some of it.’ A week later, I had an audition for ‘Alice,’ and I got it. And from then on, I did stage once in a while, but most of the time, I did film. I did ‘Alice’ and then ‘Scent of a Woman’ and ‘The Age of Innocence,’ one right after the other.”

Alexander Payne’s “About Schmidt,” in which she played Jack Nicholson’s wife, was key to raising her profile in Los Angeles, so in the early 2000s, she moved west, into the apartment complex where she still lives. (She did make a concession to her age three or four years ago when her son persuaded her to move from the second floor to the first.)

Most of the parts were small but the work was steady, and occasionally she landed a standout role in a high-profile project, most notably when Payne gave her another chance to play a star’s wife, this time Bruce Dern, in “Nebraska.”

“I’ve done leading roles on stage, and it’s fun,” she said. “If the role’s fun, it’s fun. But other than that, to me it’s the same. But I will say, you get more time on camera with a leading role. You get to say things three times where you say them once in a supporting role.’’

Her first leading role came haphazardly, courtesy of her friendship with Beanie Feldstein, with whom she appeared in the 2021 film “The Humans.” “Beanie is a friend of Josh Margolin and his family,” she said. “They were talking about Josh’s new script, and she said, ‘Who do you want for the lead?’ He said, “Well, I’d like June Squibb, but I don’t know how to get a script to her.’ She said, ‘I’ll get a script to her!’

“So she texted me and said, ‘I’m sending you a script,’ and I texted, ‘OK.’ It was ridiculous. It didn’t even go through my agent — it was just Beanie saying, ‘Here. You wanna read this?’”

The role of a feisty woman who needs help with the internet but is hell on wheels when you put her on a scooter was an ideal one for Squibb. “When I read the script, I thought, Oh, I can’t wait,” she said. “I thought, This scooter’s gonna be such fun.”

A pause. “Well, it was fun, but they first didn’t want me to drive it. They said, ‘We’ll shoot you sitting on it, and then you’ll get off, and the stunt lady will take over and drive it and do everything.’ And I thought, That’s silly. I should be able to drive it.” In the end, the filmmakers relented and let Squibb do her own scooter stunts — though neither Margolin, the stunt coordinator nor Roundtree were expecting her to ram her scooter into his as hard as she could in one scene.

“They told me drive up to him and stop, and then get off and they’d get a stunt lady to do it. And I thought, Hell, I can do this. That was my attitude toward the scooters, the bed rolls, the stairs, everything. I really ended up doing most of my own stunts.”

And now, with one of 2024’s most undeniably crowd-pleasing comedies under her belt,  she’s basking in the kind of glow she hasn’t felt before. “I’ve done good films and I’ve done bad films,” she said, “but I’ve never done something where the overall feeling from people who see the film was what it is for this one. It really is kind of amazing.”

She’s already booked her next gig — and it’s her second lead role, in a film that marks the directorial debut of Scarlett Johansson. “It’s called ‘Eleanor the Great,’ and I play Eleanor,” Squibb said, laughing. “After ‘Thelma’ and ‘Eleanor the Great,’ I’m gonna tell my agent, ‘Only leads, and only if  the film has my name on it.’”’

This story first appeared in the SAG Preview/Documentaries/International issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.

The post June Squibb Gets Her First Lead Role at 95 — and She’s Ready for More appeared first on TheWrap.

RaMell Ross won the Best Director award for his narrative debut, “Nickel Boys.”

Marianne Jean-Baptiste won the Best Actress award for her scorching performance in Mike Leigh’s “Hard Truths,” while Adrien Brody won Best Actor for “The Brutalist.”

Kieran Culkin was named Best Supporting Actor for his role in Jesse Eisenberg’s “A Real Pain.” Carol Kane was honored as Best Supporting Actress for “Between the Temples.”

As the first major critics group to announce its awards, the NYFCC was able to give a little attention to its winners in a year in which few of the major categories have strong frontrunners. “The Brutalist,” a three-and-a-half hour drama starring Brody as an architect who comes to the United States after fleeing Europe during World War II, has been a critical favorite since its debut at the Venice Film Festival in August.

In the acting categories, Culkin and Brody are considered locks for Oscar nominations, while Jean-Baptiste is on the bubble and Kane is a real longshot.

Meanwhile, Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis’ wordless “Flow” was chosen as the year’s best animated film over big-studio productions like “Inside Out 2,” “The Wild Robot” and “Moana 2.”

“No Other Land,” the documentary filmed over five years by Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers in Gaza, won the award for non-fiction film a little more than 12 hours after it won in the same category at the Gotham Awards. Payal Kapadia’s “All We Imagine As Light” did the same thing in the Best International Film category.

Sean Baker, on the other hand, won the screenplay award for “Anora” the day after his film came into the Gotham Awards as the most-nominated movie but failed to win anything.

Annie Baker’s “Janet Planet” was named the year’s best first film. Jomo Fray won the cinematography award for the way he implemented Ross’ point-of-view approach in “Nickel Boys.”

Since 1938, the winner of the NYFCC has gone on to win Best Picture more than two dozen times, but the two groups have agreed more infrequently in recent years. The last time the critics chose the eventual Oscar winner was 12 years ago, when “The Artist” won both awards. Since then, the NYFCC has gone for the likes of “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Boyhood,” “Carol,” “La La Land,” “Roma,” “First Cow,” “Drive My Car,” “Tar” and a pair of Martin Scorsese movies, “The Irishman” and last year’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

Over the last 20 years, the NYFCC winner has been nominated for the top Oscar 17 times, with the only exceptions being “United 93” in 2007, “Carol” in 2016 and “First Cow” in 2020.

The New York Film Critics Circle consists of 45 critics based in New York City. The group was founded in 1935 and has been voting on the year’s best films since 1936. Next year marks the organization’s 90th anniversary, a milestone that will be celebrated when the NYFCC holds its awards ceremony on Jan. 8, 2025.

The winners:
Best Film: “The Brutalist”
Best Director: RaMell Ross, “Nickel Boys”
Best Actor: Adrien Brody, “The Brutalist”
Best Actress: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, “Hard Truths”
Best Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin, “A Real Pain”
Best Supporting Actress: Carol Kane, “Between the Temples”
Best Screenplay: Sean Baker, “Anora”
Best Animated Film: “Flow”
Best International Film: “All We Imagine As Light”
Best Non-Fiction Film: “No Other Land”
Best Cinematography: Jomo Fray, “Nickel Boys”
Best First Film: “Janet Planet”
Special Award: To Save and Project: The MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation
Student Awards: Alexander Swift (Undergraduate, Vassar) and Drew Smith (Graduate, NYU)

The post ‘The Brutalist’ Wins Top Award From New York Film Critics – Complete List of Winners appeared first on TheWrap.

According to one mother from South Carolina, the marketing material that listed Wicked.com instead of WickedMovie.com came as an “absolute shock” and left her minor daughter “horrified.”

“These scenes were hardcore, full-on nude pornographic images depicting actual intercourse,” read the class action lawsuit filed in California on Tuesday and obtained by TheWrap. “The products are adulterated, worthless and unfit for its intended and advertised age-appropriate audience.”

A recall on the toys in question was announced on Nov. 11, though a refund was not publicly offered. The mom who filed the suit is suing for restitution and damages, citing negligence and emotional distress. She is seeking a jury trial.

“The ‘Wicked’ Dolls have returned for sale with correct packaging at retailers online and in stores to meet the strong consumer demand for the products. The previous misprint on the packaging in no way impacts the value or play experience provided by the product itself in the limited number of units sold before the correction,” Mattel told TheWrap in a Tuesday statement. “We express our gratitude to our consumers and retailers for their understanding and patience while we worked to remedy the issue.”

Additionally, representatives for the toy company previously addressed the misprint in a statement to TheWrap last month, saying they “deeply regret this unfortunate error.”

“Mattel was made aware of a misprint on the packaging of the Mattel Wicked collection dolls, primarily sold in the U.S., which intended to direct consumers to the official WickedMovie.com landing page,” the statement read. “We deeply regret this unfortunate error and are taking immediate action to remedy this. Parents are advised that the misprinted, incorrect website is not appropriate for children. Consumers who already have the product are advised to discard the product packaging or obscure the link and may contact Mattel Customer Service for further information.”

“Wicked – Part I” starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande is now playing in theaters.

Pamela Chelin contributed to this reporting.

The post ‘Wicked’ Fan Sues Mattel Over Doll Packaging That Linked to Porn, Citing Negligence and Emotional Distress appeared first on TheWrap.

Both of these films could easily be two- or three-part doc series. Did you always envision them as standalone films?
Absolutely. If ever there’s a life story that deserves the big-screen treatment, it’s Martha Stewart’s. And that’s also what I envisioned from the beginning with Elton. In the years prior to meeting (codirector) David (Furnish), if you had asked me what my wish list was, at the top of the list would have been a film about the first five years of Elton John’s career. He put out 13 albums. Seven of them went to number one. He answered the question, “What happens after the Beatles?” He redefined what pop music was and where popular music was going. And he struggled with enormous personal demons and began the long journey to overcoming them by coming out to Rolling Stone magazine. That in and of itself felt like an extraordinary narrative.

How do you merge that approach with what Furnish was looking to do, a film about the final months of Elton’s last tour?
The metaphor I proposed to David when I first met him was that the final months of the tour would be the spine of the film and the first five years would be the nervous system wrapped around that spine. In that first meeting it was clear to us that we could envision the same film.

Was he able to set aside the fact that he’s also Elton’s husband?
He was. He recognized that I have a lot of experience as a filmmaker and let me take the lead. But he had incredible wisdom and perspective and an emotional barometer for truth. David very early on said to me that the central tone of this is a desperate yearning, and that is a truth about Elton’s entire life story. David was able to distance himself but also to access the kind of keen insights and wisdom that you could only get from knowing the subject as intimately as he does.

For Martha, what was what your relationship like? She’s a fascinating interview and she’s very open about some things, but she also clearly has lines she won’t cross. You’re not going to make her cry.
Well, I don’t know about making her cry. That’s not how I work. Here’s the thing about Martha: This is a life story filled with lots of triumph and a lot of trials and tribulations, a lot of highs and a lot of lows, a lot of success and a lot of falling from a very high perch. It’s a difficult story to tell, and that is what you feel in the film. There are places she doesn’t want to go, because as she says in the film, she’s not an introspective person.

She told me once that the only time she had ever gone to therapy was for one session. She spent 10 minutes in a session, got up and declared that the session was over. And on her way out the door, she said to the doctor, “Don’t bill me.” This is not a person who who’s prone to introspection or comfortable in it.

On the other hand, she was incredibly forthcoming with her archive, and as a result you get these revealing and intimate letters to her husband when it was clear their marriage was failing. (She gave us) her prison diaries and so much more. You get startling revelations of infidelity and rawness, and you experience how raw it is. And equally important is the fact that in literary terms, she’s an unreliable narrator. You look at the film and you’re like, “Whoa! Our unreliable narrator is telling her own story. Boom, we’re on to something.”

These days, that’s really one of the virtues of nonfiction filmmaking — to call out the unreliable narrators who surround us.
Yes, I agree. I’ve been saying this for 35 years: These are real movies. These are narratives with characters and themes and cinema. “Maestro” is a movie about a fascinating man that looks at certain aspects of his life and explores certain themes and relationships and different other characters in his orbit. It tells the story and is a piece of cinema. We feel the same way about a movie like “Martha” or a movie like “Never Too Late.”

This story first appeared in the SAG Preview/Documentaries/International issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more of the issue here.

The post R.J. Cutler’s Wild 2024: From Elton John to Martha Stewart to Dodgers v. Yankees appeared first on TheWrap.